Scotland Yard aspect to ‘Partygate’ is a red herring in the Downing Street drama

News Letter editorial of Saturday January 29 2022:
News Letter editorialNews Letter editorial
News Letter editorial

The latest twist in the saga over ‘Partygate’ and Boris Johnson’s culpability in such lockdown gatherings gives the drama a desperate air.

On the one hand, there has been a clamour for the prime minister and his office to be treated the same as everyone else in Covid rules.

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This means an investigation by an official as high-powered as Sue Gray, and even a police probe too.

On the other hand there is a recoiling from such a rigidly equal approach.

Are the authorities themselves uneasy about toppling a leader who was elected by the British public with an overall majority?

Are even the Labour Party anxious about what this could mean for them, if one of their leaders reaches Downing Street?

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There has always been leeway given to the head of government which means that they are not in fact treated the same as the rest of us. Traffic is stopped to let their convoys go past, for example.

Thus the twist to events in which Scotland Yard has asked Ms Gray to limit publication of her report so that it does not prejudice their investigation is a red herring.

The question is whether or not the PM should in fact be ejected for his connivance in the Covid breaches.

The answer to that should be a narrow no. It was not, for example, as calculated as the massive Bobby Storey funeral, which really ought to have led to resignations but which was, in effect, exonerated by every investigation into it.

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But Mr Johnson would not want to be compared to the IRA, and is deservedly tarnished by the parties and what it says about his arrogance.

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