Official investigations into the claims that Downing Street workers held illegal Christmas parties while under lockdown are not intended to scapegoat senior staff, but rather identify those who were present. This was today claimed.
Sue Gray, Whitehall’s heavyweight, is conducting inquiries into the alleged gatherings at Number10 and Department for Education last November and December.
There are fears that she may pick junior staff members to be blamed after she revealed that she brought special advisers as well as Civil Service personnel into questioning just before Christmas.
But a source told the Times today: ‘I don’t think she would reasonably expect an office junior to carry the can for senior people who ended up attending any events.
“I don’t think that she’s looking to make scapegoats.” There will always be someone junior asking them to do the same thing, but that won’t necessarily reflect on who they were asked.
Sue Gray, Whitehall’s heavyweight, is conducting inquiries into the alleged gatherings at Number10 and Department for Education that took place in November and December 2013. This was when indoor mixing was outlawed.
Following the resignation of Simon Case, Cabinet Secretary, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities drafted her in.
Ms Gray was drafted in from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities after Cabinet Secretary Simon Case quit his role leading the inquiry.
He was forced to step down after it emerged a December 2020 quiz was held in his own department that he was aware of and spoke at.
A source said that Case must now be made to work harder because Case has been so publically associated with it (the probe).
Ms Gray is a former director general of propriety and ethics at The Cabinet Office and has been described as the most powerful civil servant you have never heard of.
Her former position as the director-general of ethics and propriety in Cabinet Office was an enormously powerful and extensive experience with Westminster scandals. She earned a frightening reputation among officials and ministers.
Her duties included dealing with complaints about ministers for the Cabinet Secretary or Prime Minister.
Andrew Mitchell resigned after his inquiry into the Plebgate scandal.
Following an investigation of Damian Green, she found out that he had been lying about pornography on his Commons computer.
She was the Permanent Secretary of Finance for the Northern Ireland Executive from 2018-2021.
Her return to London was to take up the Union work earlier in the year.
No10 denied that parties took place when indoor gatherings in the capital were prohibited in November and December of last year.
Boris Johnson’s best adviser is said to have made a speech on December 18, and then handed out prizes at a gathering.
Jack Doyle, who was at that time the PM’s deputy chief of communications, has since been promoted and is believed to have delivered a ‘thank-you’ speech to as many as 50 people attending the bash.