Boris Johnson has again apologised after a report detailed rule-breaking parties in and around Downing Street during the pandemic
Sue Gray's inquiry found that many of the events "should not have been allowed to happen" and that staff who raised concerns were not treated with respect
The 37-page document includes details of wine spilled down walls, vomiting, and parties lasting until 4am
Senior leadership at Downing St must bear responsibility for this culture, Gray says
Johnson says he felt it was his "duty" to attend leaving-dos of colleagues but that he takes responsibility for what happened in No 10
Labour's Keir Starmer says the Gray report shows how Downing St treated the sacrifices of the public with contempt
The report reveals Martin Reynolds, a former top aide to the PM, suggested in a message that officials had "got away with" a large event in the No 10 garden on 20 May
David Wallace Lockhart
BBC political correspondent
The timing of Julian Sturdy's tweet is a bit awkward, given that Boris Johnson is currently addressing his MPs at the 1922 Committee.
It’s not clear if Julian Sturdy is in the room, but it’s certainly a reminder that the Sue Gray report may prove to be the tipping point for some MPs
Backbench Conservative MP Julian Sturdy says he believes it is "now in the public interest for the prime minister to resign".
In a statement on Twitter, he says the Sue Gray report shows Boris Johnson "has presided over a widespread culture of disregard for coronavirus regulations".
The MP for for York Outer, who was first elected in 2010, says now questions are being raised on whether or not the prime minister lied to Parliament over the events.
He says, following the publication of the Gray report, he is "unable to give the PM the benefit of the doubt".
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Mark Easton
Home editor
"I’m waiting for Sue Gray" became almost a catchphrase in Westminster, rumours of how devastating her report would be getting louder with each passing week.
But it has proved to be far less revealing than some had suspected. The nine published photographs are just a fraction of the hundreds of pictures seen by Sue Gray’s inquiry team. What is not in today’s report poses as many questions as what is.
For example, after the boozy leaving-do pictured in some of the photos, a separate gathering took place in the prime minister’s flat. But Sue Gray didn’t investigate it. Nor other gatherings that her team had not already looked at when Scotland Yard began its investigation in January.
"I have taken the view that it would not be necessary, appropriate or proportionate to undertake any further investigation work following the conclusion of the work of the Metropolitan Police," Sue Gray says in her report.
In other words, the police inquiry didn’t just pause the Gray inquiry – it stopped it in its tracks.
We do know that just before Christmas in 2020, at one of the weekly "Wine Time Friday" events, someone accidentally triggered a panic alarm in Number 10 and a police officer on door duty raced to see what was happening. He found a crowded and noisy event with 15 to 20 people eating and drinking, some excessively.
What we don’t know is why the officer apparently took no action. After all that waiting, many questions still remain unanswered. And that makes it harder to restore the public’s faith that those who make the rules won’t break the rules.
In the hours since the Sue Gray report was published, several cabinet members have been expressing their support for the prime minister on Twitter.
In most cases they say that Boris Johnson has apologised but is the best person to deal with the country's challenges.
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab says "the PM has apologised and is implementing all Sue Gray's recommendations" and "now we need to get on and deliver for the British people".
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss says: "The prime minister has apologised and taken responsibility for the mistakes that were made. I back him 100% - we now need to drive our economy forward post-Covid and ensure Putin loses in Ukraine."
And Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries says the PM made a "full and unreserved apology" and "the public now want us to get on and deliver".
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David Wallace Lockhart
BBC political correspondent
There’s banging on the tables as Boris Johnson enters the 1922 Committee, the customary welcome for the PM.
He’s got plenty of political opponents within the room, but their numbers currently aren’t enough to mount a challenge.
One Tory MP tells me while today’s report may sway a few colleagues and convince them Johnson should go, they're not going to be the sort of numbers that could prove problematic to the prime minister.
Image source, PA MediaArchbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby visited a national Covid memorial in Warwickshire called Sanctuary on We
Standards in public life are the glue that holds us together - we need to rediscover them, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.
Justin Welby, the most senior bishop in the Church of England, said people needed to be able to trust their national institutions, particularly in troubled times.
Quote MessageWe must recover the principles of mutual flourishing and the common good in the way we are governed
David Wallace Lockhart
BBC political correspondent
Conservative MPs are starting to file in to the 1922 Committee meeting, where Boris Johnson will address colleagues.
After facing the House of Commons and a press conference in the wake of the Sue Gray report, it may well be the kindest audience of the day.
That’s not to say there won’t be staunch critics in the room - there are Tory MPs who openly want him gone.
But it doesn’t feel like today’s report has shifted the dial hugely, and it doesn’t feel like the MPs attending the meeting are on the verge of trying to topple their leader.
The next stop for Boris Johnson today will be a meeting with the 1922 committee starting around now.
The group is made up of Tory backbench MPs, and it is who the prime minister needs on side to stay in power.
The meeting is private, but our correspondents will be listening at the door and talking to MPs as they come and go to find out the mood in the party.
A Johnson loyalist has already told us Sue Gray's report will only sway a “few” MPs at most and prompt them to stick in a letter of no confidence - 54 are needed in total to trigger a leadership election.
But they made the point they think it would be “impossible” for him to lose a vote of confidence, and under the party's rules, he’d then remain safely in post for another year - and it would take him close to an election.
We'll bring you more as we get it...
It's been a few hours since Sue Gray's report was published, so let's look at how its being received by members of the public.
Rhys, from London, sent invitations for his mother's funeral in November 2020 in case people travelling to Wales from England were stopped by police.
"There was no hugging, there was no drinking, there was no tea," he says.
"So the prime minister - whether he was ambushed by a piece of cake or whether he took a wrong turning into a room where there were leaving drinks for someone - he should have taken responsibility to say, 'everyone go home, this was not appropriate because this was breaking the rules'."
Heather Porter says she saw people's distress at not seeing their loved ones while working in the NHS throughout the pandemic
In Bolsover in Derbyshire, Heather Porter, a recently retired NHS worker who worked through the pandemic, says: "To know that government were just blatantly flouting the rules they actually made is an absolute disgrace.
"They’re shambolic, they don’t deserve to lead and they all should go in my opinion."
Image source, Gail HillGail thinks Johnson is an "embarrassment" to the UK and plans to move abroad next year
Gail Hill from Middleton Cheney in West Northamptonshire retired during the pandemic due to "intolerable" stress, after 24 years in social care.
"I got a zoom call. No drinks, no party, no opportunity to say thank you to hard-working staff, no chance to say goodbye to those I'd supported."
"I find his [Johnson's] attitude and his lies and the grovelling mealy-mouthed support of ministers and MPs utterly disgraceful."
Image source, .The Sue Gray report featured photos of Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson at the event they were fined for
Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who was fined along with Boris Johnson for his attendance at the PM's birthday celebration in June 2020, has thanked Sue Gray for her report and "sincerely" repeated his apologies for attending the event.
"The prime minister has apologised and lessons have been learned. I hope we can now move forward and continue delivering for the British people," he said on Twitter.
So that's the last of the public events Boris Johnson needs to show up at today. He will meet the 1922 committee of backbench MPs later - but that's a meeting where cameras won't be allowed. So what have we learned from his news conference?
David Wallace Lockhart
BBC political correspondent
There are a few clear themes in how Boris Johnson wants to deal with question about Partygate.
He insists he didn’t think any rules were being broken, even at the event he was ultimately fined for.
But he accepts the rules were breached and he takes responsibility for this.
And finally - and most importantly in Boris Johnson’s eyes - it’s time to move on. He insists it’s time to deliver what he calls the “people’s priorities”. He’s so passionate about this he’s even banging the lectern to emphasise it.
But plenty of people will think it’s too early to move on, regardless of other factors affecting people’s lives.
Paul Brand, the ITV journalist behind several Partygate exclusives, says the PM saw what was going on in his home, participated in it and made the rules. "So, it does beg the question: are you a liar?" he asks.
"No," Johnson replies.
On the gathering in the Cabinet Room to celebrate his birthday, for which he was fined, the PM says: "It didn't occur to me... that this was a breach of the rules. That's just the way it was."
And he says he thought it was his work duty to say farewell to colleagues who were leaving at other events.
The Daily Mirror's Pippa Crerar, who was the first to report on the No 10 lockdown parties, says the PM has claimed no event was swept under the carpet, but the 13 November 2020 gathering in his flat was not investigated by Sue Gray.
Crerar asks, in the absence of any other explanation, what were the PM, his wife and five aides doing for several hours with alcohol and snacks?
She also asks if he or aides had any role in editing the report or requested the removal of any facts?
Johnson says the first he or - "to the best of my knowledge" - any of his team saw the report was just after 10:00 BST today.
He says of the flat party that Sue Gray previously noted the flat has a "dual use" as a residence and a workplace, and says the gathering that evening was a "work meeting".
Johnson says the police did investigate it and that was "certainly the outcome of their investigation".
David Wallace Lockhart
BBC political correspondent
We’ve had a handful of questions from journalists and a common theme emerges in Boris Johnson’s answers: he thought what he was doing was within the rules.
Attending leaving events for staff and thanking them for hard work, he insists, is part of the job.
But it’s worth bearing in mind that not every event the prime minister attended, and that Sue Gray subsequently investigated, was a leaving event for a member or staff.
The Guardian's Jessica Elgot points out that people in the press office told journalists that there were no parties, and now we know from Sue Gray's report that there were parties in the press office itself. Were they told to lie?
Johnson says: "I don't know what they told you."
He says his strong impression was that they believed they were working and that they were not breaking the rules.
"I certainly don't think they set out to deceive you," he says.
But he accepts the police investigation and Sue Gray report show that the rules were breached.
Sky's Beth Rigby asks whether the prime minister has ever thought about resigning over Partygate.
Johnson doesn't directly answer.
Rigby cuts in to reiterate her question, to which the PM briefly questions why it is only her who can come back to him, before saying: "I just repeat my point... I overwhelmingly feel it is my job to get on and deliver.
Quote MessageNo matter how bitter and painful the conclusions of this may be - and they are - and no matter how humbling they are, I've got to keep moving forward.
David Wallace Lockhart
BBC political correspondent
As he did in the Commons this lunchtime, Boris Johnson kicked off the press conference by giving some “context” around the events that took place.
He stressed that he believed that giving a speech (and raising a glass, perhaps) to a departing colleague is an important part of leadership.
He reminded us he wasn’t fined for such events, even though some others were, as parties went on into the night.
And he wanted to stress that Downing Street civil servants had significant achievements in the pandemic – PPE, testing, vaccines.
Next up, Tom Harwood from GB News asks the PM whether the rules he set were too unclear, illogical and tight for too long.
Johnson says: "I don't think the flaw was with the rules.
Quote MessageWe should have recognised that the boundary between work events and socialising... was going to be hard to draw and things should've been done differently.
Channel 4's Matt Frei says that Johnson is the first PM to have been found to have broken the law in office and asks about his personal responsibility for the culture in Downing Street.
The PM says he should look very carefully at Sue Gray's report about his own participation in events for a "pretty fair picture".
Quote MessageThat doesn't mean I don't accept responsibility for the totality of what happened. I bitterly regret it