Thread by @althecat

In her report as released Sue Grey says she is unable to reveal any of the details of what she found because of the police investigation.

She says she has not shared her detailed finding with the PM and has instead deposited them in a safe pending the Police investigation ends.

https://twitter.com/ScoopNZ/status/1488167287953805312

#PartyGate thread covering the @BorisJohnson response to these revelations due to begin in 15 minutes in the House of Commons.

By way of background for those who have missed the evolution of this story. In late 2021 stories about parties at Downing Street during period's of peak Covid lockdown began to emerge.

Over the past two months Boris Johnson has repeatedly denied, misrepresented or minimised these events in answers to questions in the House of Commons.

But after it emerged recently that one of these parties was a birthday party for Boris himself, at which there was a birthday cake, and singing of happy birthday, the confidence crisis in the UK PMs leadership has sharply deepened.

As coverage rolls on waiting for him to appear, his notices have come in. Liberal Democrats Party Leader Ed Davey has called for him to resign or be removed immediately. @UKLabour Deputy Leader @AngelaRayner says she felt sickened when she heard news of Sue Grey's report.

@UKLabour @AngelaRayner The full (heavily abridged due to a police investigation) Sue Grey report (12 pages) can be read at the Guardian here >> theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/j…

As the paper's prepare their verdicts, @BorisJohnson has now started speaking. He starts by saying "sorry", and is now saying that he is going to make changes at Downing Street. So clearly not resigning.

"I will be saying more in the coming days about the changes we will be making..... I get it and I will fix it. I known what the issue is - its whether the Govt. can be trusted to deliver, and we can be. We said we would deliver Brexit and we did...."

Boris is still fighting.

Its now @Keir_Starmer's turn. He says it is clear that in 12 instances conduct in 10 Downing St reached a level making it subject to criminal conduct..... at every step on the way he has dodged responsibility. "Even now he is hiding behind a police investigation....

.. he is a man without shame. He has frayed the bond of trust with the public... undermined our democracy. Whatever your politics honesty and decency matters our great democracy depends on it. Cherishing democracy is what it means to be patriotic.

Starmer says the question now is what will the MPs opposite (the @Conservatives) will do about it.

. @BorisJohnson responds to an the statement by effectively confirming the allegation @Keir_Starmer made against him that he intends to hide behind the police investigation. He goes on to talk about Free Ports (again) and raises the spectre of the tensions in Ukraine.

The first question from his own side came former PM @theresa_may, asking him whether the issue is that his office did not understand the regulations they had themselves imposed on the country, or that they believed that the rules did not apply to them.

To which Boris Johnson replied saying that @theresa_may's interpretation of the Sue Grey report was wrong.

@theresa_may Ian Blackford SNP Leader. "Where is the shame, where is the dignity."

During his speech the Speaker came to his rescue allowing him to add "inadvertantly" to "misled" to his allegations against @BorisJohnson. And at the end he did so again, very generously.

@theresa_may @BorisJohnson After a bit of gloating from Boris Johnson about the "inadvertantly" the Speaker asked In Blackford to confirm his withdrawal, then just as he was about to be expelled, Blackford left.

As another senior Tory figure steps up to say he no longer has confidence in the Prime Minister it is now clear that Boris Johnson is facing a live Conservative Party challenge to his leadership.

Sir Bernard Jenkin (Conservatives): "Let me remind the opposition that we have no need to be reminded about how to remove a failing leader."

He sounded very disappointed - then asked a question about the reorganisation of the PM's office.

Two more critical questions from Tory back benches, the second from former Solicitor General Sir Robert Buckland. The first asked and third of the speakers pictured below all echoed opposition questions asking for release of the unredacted report.

PM @BorisJohnson's response was to say that he would wait till the police report had been completed and that he would then decide what to release. And it is clear that there are a lot of MPs on his own side, who do not consider this acceptable.

@BorisJohnson We now have the first question in a while from a Tory backbencher which could be considered sympathetic. Quickly followed by another from one Steve Baker who is not.

Boris has now been asked repeatedly about his denial about a party being held on the 13th of November - the night of the party allegedly held to celebrate Dominic Cummings departure. The PM has more than once now said he stands by his previous denials.

We now have a Tory backbencher asking the PM if he considers "him to be a fool" for obeying the rules as he attended a small funeral with no hugs after the death of his mother during lockdown around the time that the PM was having his parties.

"There are legal issues that we face about some of the testimony that has been given...."

@BorisJohnson answers yet another of his own backbenchers refusing once again to guarantee release of a complete unredacted version of the #suegreyreport

@BorisJohnson This is unprecedented to my mind. A constant stream of his own MPs challenging him directly in Parliament over his decisions and statements at the dispatch box. Even his friends appear to be very very unhappy.

This question session has gone for 100 minutes now, most of the UK PM’s own members have left the house and he is getting increasingly short and ratty in his answers.

He’s going to struggle to survive this.