Former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson broke down in tears during a Channel 4 interview on Monday evening when speaking about the Sue Gray report findings.
A number of parties in and around Downing Street during the pandemic “should not have been allowed to take place”, the initial report into the scandal has concluded.
In a limited update, top civil servant Sue Gray said some of the behaviour was “difficult to justify” and betrayed “failures of leadership and judgment” in Number 10 and the Cabinet Office.
The Metropolitan Police are now investigating 12 separate alleged breaches of the rules in 2020 and 2021.
They include events where the Prime Minister has admitted being present and another in the flat he shares with his wife Carrie Johnson in Downing Street.
Speaking to Channel 4 News about how she feels let down by Boris Johnson’s leadership, an emotional Lady Davidson said: “I am upset, and I’m upset not just because of things that myself and others that are in my close family or circle of friends had to give up, but I was working in the Scottish Parliament.
"I had constituents that lost businesses, I had people that feel guilty that they didn’t go to the care home to see their parents, that they didn’t hug a friend at a funeral because they played by the rules.
“And now they look at what happened in Number 10 and they feel like idiots, and they shouldn’t be made to feel like that.”
Facing the Commons after Sue Gray’s initial report into lockdown parties in and around Number 10 was published, Mr Johnson said he was sorry for mistakes.
He added that he would shake-up the operation at Number 10, including creating an Office of the Prime Minister with its own permanent secretary.
There would also be a review of the codes of conduct governing civil servants and special advisers.
There have been cross-party calls for him to resign, however Mr Johnson has made it clear he will not be resigning over the partygate scandal, telling MPs: “I get it and I will fix it.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel