Page:Fifth Report - Matter referred on 21 April 2022 (conduct of Rt Hon Boris Johnson).pdf/33

 British people understand that this is the moment for the whole country to come together, obey those rules, and apply common sense in their application of them”. On 22 September 2020, Mr Johnson said at a Covid press conference: “Never in our history has our collective destiny and our collective health depended so completely on our individual behaviour. If we follow these simple rules together, we will get through this winter together”. Again on 22 September 2020, Mr Johnson told the House–after announcing new workplace restrictions and promoting covid-secure business practices: “If people focus on the measures we have outlined today, and particularly on obeying the guidance on social distancing, together we will defeat covid.”

92. In oral evidence Mr Johnson “disagree[d] […] very strongly” with the suggestion that a breach of Covid Rules would have been obvious to him when he was there. Referring to one of the photographs we invited him to comment on, he said “[t]here is nothing I can see […] in that photograph that strikes me as being either against the Rules or the Guidance”. As in relation to other gatherings, Mr Johnson asserted that “I thought it was right and proper for me to motivate staff by saying how we were doing and to thank them for what they had done. It wasn’t just the staff who were leaving who needed to be appreciated; it was the staff who were there, who needed to be motivated”.

93. Commenting on the array of bottles visible on the table in the photographs, Mr Johnson said “I know that there are some bottles on the table […] It is customary to say farewell to people in this country with a toast. I did not see any sign of drunkenness or excess […] I don’t know what happened later on”.

94. '''We note that some participants in the gathering received Fixed Penalty Notices. As we have commented earlier (see paragraphs 37 and 66), we do not consider that an event at this time was compliant with Covid Rules if the purpose of the event was purely to maintain staff morale.'''

Other gatherings
95. On 18 May 2023 the Government, without prior notice to us, supplied us with new evidence relating to 16 gatherings at No. 10 and at Chequers. Accompanying this was a statement by the Government that: “As part of their work preparing Boris Johnson’s witness statement for the Covid Inquiry (due to be filed on 29 May), the counsel team supporting Mr Johnson identified a number of diary entries as potentially problematic. These entries […] are based on an assessment by Government Legal Department as to events/activities which could reasonably be considered to constitute breaches of Covid Regulations.” We assessed that this material was potentially relevant to our inquiry and accepted it as formal evidence. The following day, 19 May, we disclosed the material to Mr Johnson and requested that he supply us with comments, which we subsequently received. We also asked the Cabinet Office to supply us with further contextual material about the