'He should be absolutely ashamed': Shelagh Fogarty slams PM over Partygate
25 May 2022, 14:44 | Updated: 25 May 2022, 16:59
Sue Gray Partygate report: Shelagh Fogarty says PM should be 'absolutely ashamed'
Boris Johnson should be "absolutely ashamed", Shelagh Fogarty has declared following the publication of the long-awaited Sue Gray Partygate report.
Sue Gray's report has revealed serious breaches of Covid-19 lockdown rules at the heart of government.
The senior civil servant's full report reveals that the Prime Minister attended multiple rule-breaking parties, including leaving dos and birthday celebrations.
The report also details how junior Number 10 staffers felt obliged to attend rule-breaking Downing Street parties given the presence of more senior members of the government staff at events.
Staff also didn't feel empowered to blow the whistle on events which saw some Number 10 officials fighting and vomiting amid parties, report details also has detailed.
Following the publication of the report, Boris Johnson told the Commons: "I want to begin today by renewing my apology to the House, to the whole country, for the short lunchtime gathering on June 19, 2020 in the Cabinet Room, during which I stood at my place at the Cabinet table and for which I received a fixed penalty notice.
"I also want to say above all that I take full responsibility for everything that took place on my watch. Sue Gray’s report has emphasised that it is up to the political leadership in Number 10 to take ultimate responsibility and, of course, I do.’
Following the publication of the report, Mr Johnson has also said that he is "humbled" and has "learned a lesson".
Shealgh said: "What gets me more than anything - and I know many MPs have made this point themselves just today and other days as well - is you know you read now that litany of events and that descriptions from Sue Gray.
"Vomit, wine up the walls, a fight in one instance, paper and books and empty bottle all over the place [and] cleaners having to clean up all of that afterwards, security guards in Number 10 being laughed out of the room when they expressed serious concern about what was going on in some of those rooms...oh and coppers everywhere.
READ MORE: Sick, fights and wine up the wall: Key points from Sue Gray's damning Partygate report
Boris Johnson attempts to 'correct the record' on Partygate
"And this happening while people died alone in locked rooms that nobody else was allowed to go into other than hospital staff. Dead people lay in coffins in empty rooms [with] no relatives shedding a tear in the same room to mourn them, barely being able to go to their funerals.
"And relatives [are] still - because I know because you tell me - still broken with this, broken with rage, broken with guilt about the doors you didn't push, the corners that you didn't cut, because you were taking the health of your fellow citizens as seriously as the Prime Minister asked you to. Plain and simple.
"So when Boris Johnson says in the House of Commons - as he just has - he is 'humbled', he didn't use the word shame.
"I think he should be ashamed from the top of his blonde head to his toenails. He should be absolutely ashamed.
"All of them should be ashamed, every one of them that took part in it. And I include the junior civil servants in this, because they're adult men and women. You should know what a party is and what a party isn't.
"They were steeped in this stuff every day. They knew. You knew, I knew, they knew."
READ MORE: 'Egregious, stinking behaviour': Andrew Marr's instant reaction to Sue Gray's Partygate report
