Boris Johnson has revealed he made a mistake by appointing Sue Gray to her brief role as partygate inquisitor as Sir Keir Starmer later snagged the civil servant to join him as his Chief of Staff.
Johnson, 60, sat down with Camilla Tominey on GB News to discuss his premiership ahead of the release of his tell-all memoir “Unleashed” on October 10.
The former Prime Minister shed some light on his eventual downfall, fielding questions about partygate and Gray’s report into events across Whitehall.
“I thought it was extraordinary, to be honest, but there you go,” Johnson said. “You asked me about mistakes I made, I shouldn’t have appointed her and asked her to do that thing.”
‘Extraordinary!’ Boris reveals regret at picking Gray for partygate probe as ex-PM takes swipe at Starmer over No10 power strugglePAJohnson appointed Gray to pen a report into partygate after outgoing Cabinet Secretary Simon Case was accused of attending a lockdown-breaking event.
In her lengthy report, Gray said: “Many will be dismayed that behaviour of this kind took place on this scale at the heart of Government.
“The public have a right to expect the very highest standards of behaviour in such places and clearly what happened fell well short of this.”
She also claimed that events in Whitehall demonstrated “failures of leadership and judgment in No 10 and the Cabinet Office”.
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Boris Johnson joined Camilla Tominey ahead of the release of ‘Unleashed’
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When asked why he regretted her appointment, Johnson added: “It turned out what I didn’t know was that she’d already been approached to be the Chief of Staff of Ed Miliband.”
Johnson first claimed Gray was approached to work for Miliband last month, accusing the ex-civil servant of going on to pen a “ridiculous and unfair witch-hunt” into partygate.
Gray formally joined Starmer as his Chief of Staff in September 2023 but reportedly found herself at loggerheads with the Prime Minister’s top strategist Morgan McSweeney after Labour’s stonking victory on July 4.
Johnson, who attended the same primary school as Miliband in North London, looked to sticl the knife into Starmer after the Prime Minister was rocked by reports of infighting in Downing Street.
He said: “Far be it for me to intrude on a neighbour’s private grief, but I do wonder what the hell on earth is going on with those guys?
Former senior civil servant Sue Gray joined Labour to become Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, igniting the controversy
PA
“I mean, you know this guy, Waheed Alli, why is he giving money to – what was it about this MP called Conlon?”
Liam Conlon, who won the seat of Beckenham & Penge by 12,905 votes, is Gray’s son.
The Prime Minister has denied any wrongdoing in the recent donorgate scandal and handed back £6,000 after receiving £107,000 in gifts and donations since 2019.
During his interview with GB News, Johnson defended his handling of Covid by citing the vaccine roll-out.
He said: “If you look at what we did with the vaccine rollout, it was absolutely outstanding.”
Keir Starmer PAWhen asked if his Covid or partygate explained his downfall, Johnson added: “There was an outbreak of irrationality in my party.”
Directly discussing partygate, Johnson defended civil servants and staff in Whitehall.
He argued: “I didn’t see people partying, right? It didn’t, and I really don’t think those civil servants set out to break the rules and to have a great time. It was not like that in No10. It was, if anything, a pretty funereal and exhausting time and we were working the whole time.”
Support for the Tory Party tanked following initial reports concerning partygate, with the Prime Minister’s grip on power diminishing day-by-day.
Johnson was eventually toppled after the so-called Chris Pincher affair but many believe the damage was done by the time the Prime Minister was fined by the Metropolitan Police.