let's talk about why the british prime
minister is in trouble
boris johnson and some of his senior
officials are accused of partying in
number 10 downing street while the
country was locked down
this is a business meeting and after two
months of media leaks the first official
report about what went on has come out
it talks about failures of leadership
and judgment excessive alcohol
consumption in the workplace staff being
afraid to speak out
and and this is kind of the crux of
partygate that the people at the top
failed to meet even the basic standards
expected of everyone else i want to say
sorry this is a moment when let's look
at ourselves
in the mirror
and we must learn by routinely breaking
the rules he set the prime minister took
us all for fools he held people
sacrificing contempt either my right
honourable friend had not read the rules
or didn't understand what they meant and
others around him or they didn't think
the rules applied to number 10 which was
it undoubtedly it's a question of ethics
and honor so will boris johnson be
forced to go
how might this all play out
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to help explain why this is all such a
big deal in the uk and why so many
people are angry let's dial it back to
may 2020.
more than 36 000 people had already died
of covid intensive care units were full
and lockdown rules were strict
socializing in doors with anyone from
outside your household was banned so
families and friends were kept apart
we had a horrific cases of young
children who weren't able to hug their
their dying mothers you know at the
height of the pandemic at the height of
restrictions in mid-may the government
announced a slight relaxation in the
rules and ministers went on tv to push
the message you can meet one person
outside your household in an outdoor
public place provided that you stay two
meters apart
but it turns out that on the same day as
that tv appearance a senior official in
downing street invited more than 100
staff to socially distanced drinks in
the garden and told them to bring your
own booze
and boris johnson has acknowledged that
he was there but that he thought it was
for work nobody said that
this was something that was against the
rules it was a breach of the of the
cobia rules that we were doing something
that wasn't a
work event but that's just one example
the report that's just come out lists 16
gatherings
not only at number 10 downing street a
resident of the british prime minister
but also across government departments
in an area of london known as whitehall
there were goodbye drinks for staff a
birthday party for the prime minister
and two gatherings in downing street the
night before the funeral for prince
philip where the queen sat alone as she
buried her husband of 73 years
now this report was done by a downing
street bureaucrat sue grey a woman
described in the past as the sleaze
buster of whitehall and her
investigation became a big part of the
story because once boris johnson stopped
denying outright that any rules had been
broken
waiting for sue grey's report kind of
became his main defense all guidance was
followed completely during number 10.
what i can tell you is that
all the guidelines were observed
continue to be observed and all i ask is
that sue gray be allowed to complete her
inquiry i've just got to ask people to
to wait for the sue grey to report the
thing is we still don't actually have
sue grey's full report so far it's just
an update and that's because the police
decided to launch their own
investigation
and they asked sue gray to hold back on
any juicy details so it wouldn't
compromise their work
we know now that police are looking into
12 of the gatherings and the prime
minister attended at least two of those
according to media reports he was at
others too and another thing sue gray
gave the police a pile of evidence
including 300 photographs what we
learned from this report above all was
the extent of the metropolitan police
investigation which perhaps was much
bigger than people were expecting it's
because of the peace investigation that
we don't know much detail and that's
giving the government something of a
short-term lifeline it's a lifeline the
prime minister appears to be hanging
onto and that his opponents are
criticizing i urge him to reconsider
upon full consideration of the of the
inquiry i suggest that she waits to see
the conclusion of the inquiry his best
course is simply to wait for the uh for
the inquiry to be complete he is hiding
behind a police investigation into
criminality into his home and his office
he gleefully treats what should be a
mark of shame
as a welcome shield
so what now well the police
investigation could drag on for months
but in the end the worst anyone will get
for breaking covet rules is a fine so no
one's facing jail time but boris
johnson's job is on the line because his
own conservative mps could decide to
kick him out that would involve what's
called a vote of no confidence to hold
one 15 percent of conservative mps so 54
out of 359 have to write a letter to the
head of a special committee so far only
a few have said publicly that they've
done that but the process happens in
secret so we're never quite sure of the
numbers if a vote does happen johnson
would need a simple majority to keep his
job but again that's if it even happens
it doesn't look as though the no
confidence vote is going to happen in
the near future
but it's very clear that the prime
minister is on probation so he's
promised to make some changes and follow
sue gray's recommendations including
changing the management structure in
number 10. i get it and i will fix it
the question is
assuming that he can escape the clutches
of the police
can he deliver what
tory mps want to see in the way of a
change of his style and that's really a
big part of what this comes down to for
boris johnson his style of leadership
he's the big brash politician who won a
huge majority in parliament on a promise
to get brexit done
it's a style that's made him a vote
winner boris johnson was essentially the
man that united the conservative party's
different wings and factions under one
banner the power of his personality
was magnetic um members of the tory
party the conservative party rallied
around him
following his battle cry to get brexit
done and he managed to do that but
conservative mps are now weighing up
whether party gate and all the public
outrage has damaged the boris brand so
much that he's now become a liability
there is certainly anger out there there
is certainly distrust out there
and there is certainly a widespread
feeling that he should go although that
is not a feeling that is universal
amongst conservative voters i think he's
not fit to be in
prime minister i think you should resign
i think it's a very disappointing lack
of integrity in leadership and that's
really sad for our democracy
if they'd been honest from the start
there wouldn't have been all this hoo-ha
if they just said straight away
hands up we're guilty we've done
something people would have respected
that he's been the best prime minister
we've had for a long time i think
there's worse things going on than him
having the party and that's something
that boris johnson and his allies are
really trying to push basically saying
there are bigger things to worry about
like the threat of a russian invasion of
ukraine and he's been visiting kiev for
talks about that and then there's all
the other stuff going on back home we
are facing
another perfect storm of problems for
the british public as well we've got
rising the rising cost of living we've
got soaring
gas prices
people are really really struggling to
bounce back from the pandemic of course
the government is hoping that the media
agenda will move on i think however
journalists have decided that there is a
sufficient issue of public interest here
that it is going to continue not always
up a high pitch but it's not going to go
away
so the pressure is on for prime minister
johnson from the police the public the
media the opposition from his own
conservative party and there's pressure
to release the full version of sue
gray's report
question is can his political career
survive
hi if you haven't already seen our
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with russia and ukraine we've linked it
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here episodes and i'll see you next week