Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Josquius]

If you aren't even sure whether there was a massive party in your house or not how can you be expected to govern a country.

[Gups]

There a bye election next Thursday. If the Tories lose a safe seat and this is blamed, the pressure will mount on Johnson. The whole thing is a genuine omnishambles. They can't even confirm that they guy investigating the party/not party was actually at the party or not. It's pathetic on so many levels but particularly in terms of sheer, unmitigated political incompetence.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Allegra Stratton has resigned :

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/dec/08/how-allegra-strattons-struggles-kept-press-briefing-project-off-air

The above includes this interesting sentence :

"Ironically, her struggle to quickly answer the question about a Christmas party in a private rehearsal in December 2020 was among the issues that led the government to ultimately decide it should not put her on air as host of the daily briefings."

[Josquius]

There a bye election next Thursday. If the Tories lose a safe seat and this is blamed, the pressure will mount on Johnson. The whole thing is a genuine omnishambles. They can't even confirm that they guy investigating the party/not party was actually at the party or not. It's pathetic on so many levels but particularly in terms of sheer, unmitigated political incompetence.

I'm somewhat doubtful they will with the lib/lab split. I can see their margin dropping a lot though which might be interesting?

[Tamas]

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/dec/08/no-10-christmas-party-scandal-prompts-flood-of-memes-online

[Sheilbh]

There a bye election next Thursday. If the Tories lose a safe seat and this is blamed, the pressure will mount on Johnson. The whole thing is a genuine omnishambles. They can't even confirm that they guy investigating the party/not party was actually at the party or not. It's pathetic on so many levels but particularly in terms of sheer, unmitigated political incompetence.

Yeah - totally unforced. I think they have now confirmed that Simon Case didnt attend the party on the 18th - if there was a party on the 18th. But that's the only one he's been asked to investigate not the other two (at least) that have come out.

Separately - but more political incompetence - Allegra Stratton has resigned as COP26 and apologised just two hours after the PM's spokesman said he had full confidence in her, which I think must be a record

And why it matters and will keep rolling was just on display on the BBC where they were interviewing a woman who didn't visit her father in hospital, who died of covid the same week this party took place. Personally I remember having to phone my mum and say I wasn't going to be back for Christmas because of the rules. It's absolutely infuriating and really resonates on a personal level in a way that 90% of political stories just don't.

Aibhe Rea for the New Statesman on PMQs which catches the importance of that November 13 denial and the police comment:

What we learned from an extraordinary Prime Minister's Questions
By Ailbhe Rea

Boris Johnson issued a non-apology... and threw his staff under the bus

Boris Johnson began an extraordinary Prime Minister's Questions today with a statement to address the furore over the alleged party held in Downing Street on 18 December. With the eyes of the country, the opposition, and his own party keenly on him, the Prime Minister adopted a strategy of apologising, but distanced himself utterly from Allegra Stratton, his then spokeperson, and the rest of his staff in Downing Street, saying he was "sickened" by the video footage that has emerged of them apparently laughing about a party in a mock press conference last December.

"I understand and share the anger up and down the country at seeing number 10 staff seeming to make light of lockdown measures," Johnson told the House of Commons. "I can understand how infuriating it must be to think that the people who have been setting the rules have not been following the rules, because I was also furious to see that clip... I apologise unreservedly for the offense that it has caused up and down the country and I apologise for the impression that it gives."

Nothing happened... but there will be a cabinet secretary investigation into what happened

The Prime Minister repeated what he has been "assured of": that "there was no party and that no covid rules were broken". He announced that he has asked the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, who is the most senior civil servant in Downing Street and also head of the civil service, "to establish all the facts and report back as soon as possible", committing to "disciplinary action for all involved if rules are found to have been broken". The careful wording sees the Prime Minister continue to maintain that nothing happened, but that if it did, he had nothing to do with it, and heads will roll further down the food chain.

Boris Johnson has committed to handing over information to the police...

While there are questions over the cabinet secretary's ability freely to conduct an investigation that could include the Prime Minister himself, the Labour leader Keir Starmer managed to secure a commitment – seemingly off-the-cuff – from Johnson into handing over all the information he has about Christmas parties in Downing Street to the Metropolitan Police. Crucially, this commitment on the record does not just extend to what happened on 18 December, but to "parties", plural, in Downing Street.

... And issued a categorical denial that there was another party in Downing Street on 13 November

In combination with Johnson's commitment to handing over information to the police, the most significant answer came in response to a question from Labour backbencher Catherine West, who bounced the Prime Minister into denying – with a flat "no" – that another party took place in Downing Street on 13 November, during lockdown last year. This was a snap response to a tweet by Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister's disgraced ex-senior adviser, fifteen minutes into Prime Minister's Questions, alleging that there was a party in the Downing Street flat on that date – which was, incidentally, the day when Cummings was fired.

After a delicate dance by government for a week as to what did or didn't happen on 18 December, Boris Johnson has been bounced into a straight denial about a party that allegedly happened closer to home. As the crisis continues, this could be the point that comes back to bite him.

[Tamas]

I guess what will be interesting is where Cressida Dick will put her bet - on Boris staying or going? I expect that'll influence how stringent a police investigation it's going to be .

[Sheilbh]

I'm somewhat doubtful they will with the lib/lab split. I can see their margin dropping a lot though which might be interesting?

Yeah - the Lib Dems are edging forward in the betting markets and did well at the local elections in that area so it might consolidate behind them.

This is entirely anecdotal - but the Mirror (who have had a terrific set of scoops on this government lately) reporter in North Shropshire said that every person she spoke to raised the party unprompted and were very, very unimpressed.

[garbon]

I cant belive in the press conference that Boris wanted to pay tribute to Allegra...

[Sheilbh]

I cant belive in the press conference that Boris wanted to pay tribute to Allegra...

I know - I was watching that thinking "why are you doing this?" Again just on Gups on a purely political competence level, don't spend a couple of minutes paying tribute to a colleague who's resigned joking about covering up a party in your house.

[garbon]

The Metropolitan Police said it will not investigate allegations of a party at Downing Street due to an "absence of evidence"

[Tamas]

The Metropolitan Police said it will not investigate allegations of a party at Downing Street due to an "absence of evidence"

"Know your place, peasants."

[garbon]

The Metropolitan Police said it will not investigate allegations of a party at Downing Street due to an "absence of evidence"

"Know your place, peasants."

I don't know it was a beloved Labour politician who said the following:

The rules apply to all of us. They don't have different rules for little people and no rules for Number 10.

We are all the little people.

[Tamas]

We are all the little people.

I mean, it IS a hereditary monarchy.

[Tamas]

So are our estate agents now supposed to cancel the "routine inspection" of our home scheduled for Monday?