The Met vs Sue Gray on ‘partygate’
Political Fix
Financial Times
4.2 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 29 January 2022
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The official investigation into lockdown Downing Street gatherings was due to be concluded this week, but a criminal probe by the police has thrown Whitehall’s Sue Gray off course. When will the inquiry be released? Plus, we discuss the UK’s involvement in the worsening situation in Ukraine and what it says about post-Brexit foreign policy.
Presented by Sebastian Payne, with George Parker, Robert Shirmsley, Laura Hughes and Gideon Rachman.
Produced by Anna Dedhar and Howie Shannon. The sound engineers were Breen Turner and Jan Sigsworth.
Audio: Sky News
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's been another turbulent week in the party gate scandal, but Boris Johnson insisted he would not censor or impede the investigation into lockdown-busting parties in his own back garden. |
| 0:12.0 | Absolutely not, but you'll just have to... I'm afraid you've got to let the independent enquiries go on. |
| 0:20.0 | Wait, I wish I can't really say any more than what I said yesterday about that. |
| 0:26.0 | Will you publish it in full? |
| 0:28.0 | Of course. |
| 0:30.0 | Welcome to Payne's Politics. |
| 0:32.0 | You're inside a guide to what's happening in British politics from the financial times, with me Sebastian Payne. |
| 0:38.0 | In this week's episode, we'll be returning to the long awaited and the long delayed investigation into those rule-breaking parties and examine why hasn't the inquiry come out yet. |
| 0:47.0 | And why have the Met Politicite intervened just as it was about to be published and when could we expect publication? |
| 0:53.0 | Political editor George Parker and chief political commentator Robert Swimsley will explore. |
| 0:58.0 | And later, we'll be looking at the UK's active role in the worsening situation between Ukraine and Russia. |
| 1:04.0 | What role is the Johnson government taking in assisting Ukrainian forces and is he getting ahead of the rest of Europe? |
| 1:10.0 | And what does it tell us about the state of British foreign policy after Brexit? |
| 1:14.0 | Political and diplomatic correspondent Laura Hughes were analyzed without Chief Foreign Affairs commentator Gideon Rackman. |
| 1:24.0 | Now, George and Robert, we are sitting in a studio. |
| 1:27.0 | The three of us, I could not tell you the last time we did this. |
| 1:30.0 | It feels like something from another age and sort of speaks to how normal the COVID situation is. |
| 1:35.0 | We're not talking about COVID. It's an incredible thing in itself, isn't it? It's great. |
| 1:39.0 | Although the city of London is still somewhat bare at the moment, as is the FT's office. |
| 1:43.0 | This is so normal that I think we'll all go out and have a bring your own booze party as soon as we finish. |
| 1:48.0 | I actually just went to the kitchenette in the FT and I saw a bottle of red wine. |
| 1:52.0 | There's been probably sitting there for about two and a half years. |
... |
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