It the latest U-turn to involve the government, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick announced today that the force would, after all, investigate the law breaking that is alleged to have taken place by the prime minister and others at Downing Street during the lockdown periods. This means that Sue Gray’s investigation and report may now be put on hold until after the police investigation has concluded.
So why did it take so long for the police to accept responsibility for investigating these offences? The evidence would appear to be plentiful, including logs held by Commissioner Dick’s own officers. Investigating lawbreaking by our elected leaders and public servants, historic or otherwise, is clearly in the public interest. And in this particular case, being seen to enforce and uphold the law fairly – regardless of the suspect – is essential, not just for reasons of democracy, but for public health messaging too. If we allow our leaders to be demonstrably above the law, then how effective will future restrictions be?
So why the delay?
Gray areas and Twitter chatter
Whilst perusing Twitter in the days leading up to this U-turn, I noticed that a small account with 43 followers had innocently tweeted: “Why is Boris Johnson allowed to hold his own investigation into breaking the law, allegedly, when everyone else in the country is investigated by the police?”
Well, quite. Then I saw a reply that stopped me in my tracks.
“Because the Metropolitan Police cooked up a secret deal with the Cabinet Office to allow him to do so and then began a cover-up operation to keep it secret.”
The reason it caught my eye was because its author is none other than Alex Thomson, chief correspondent and presenter at Channel 4 news.
He had been doggedly pursuing the Met since their first stated refusal to investigate this matter. He eventually moved on to openly appealing for information from Metropolitan Police officers with any leads relating to the force’s secret deal regarding the non-investigation of Number 10 parties and subsequent cover-up. Thomson also tweets that the police are pressuring the Good Law Project not to publish evidence it has collected around this subject, and which it has forwarded to the police.
What led to Sue Gray having to investigate?
This week we had expected to see the highly anticipated Gray report into the gatherings that may or may not be parties and which were, or perhaps were not, attended on occasion by Johnson, depending on whether he was informed that said gatherings were or were not against the rules. Confused? You’re supposed to be.
Embarrassed by the leaked video of Allegra Stratton joking about a party at Number 10 during rehearsals for a daily press briefing, an apparently outraged prime minister appointed cabinet secretary Simon Case to investigate the affair. Until, in keeping with the culture of Johnson’s leadership, it was leaked that Simon Case may have attended the odd shindig or two himself, and the inquiry was handed to Gray.
The more cynical amongst us were not excessively hopeful that justice would be done. The Independent writes that officials at Number 10 have held back information from Gray after being encouraged to destroy evidence and have been “frightened into silence”.
The police initially refused requests to investigate Downing Street parties
There were rumours afoot that the police had provided “damning evidence” to the Gray inquiry, which raised the question as to why they were not investigating the parties themselves. It seems the penny has finally dropped.
MPs from both sides of the house had called on the police to investigate, including Labour’s Barry Gardiner and Conservative Stephen Crabb. Until today, this was to no avail. Whatever their supposed reasoning, reports of police raiding house parties and fining the attendees up to £800 each doesn’t seem to fit with the Met’s initial intransient refusal to even ask Downing Street a few searching questions.
In fact, rather than investigating the alleged offences, the Met preferred to refer themselves to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, following complaints at their inaction. In hindsight, it really would have been quicker, more effective and more honourable if they had just done their job from the start.
What next for the inquiry?
It’s unclear when, if at all, Gray will resume her inquiry. Sky News reported earlier today that the report could still be published this week.
Whether the report adds much to what is already known, is a different matter. The inquiry itself is an internal government investigation and as such its terms of reference were set by the prime minister – with Johnson also signing off on the final report. As the Institute for Government pointed out in their report into this inquiry, Gray is impartial but not independent. And with an ongoing police investigation now taking place, this will further restrict what information can be made public.
And the case shows depressingly similar parallels to the Russia report. On Sunday, the press reported that Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab had suggested that the report might not ever be published in full. And Nadhim Zahawi confirmed as much by stating that perhaps only the findings will be presented.
Let’s hope the police investigation and outcomes, when they land, are more revealing.
