Boris Johnson apologises ‘unreservedly’ for Covid fine but insists he did not mislead MPs ahead of crunch Partygate vote

May 15, 2020 - Downing Street garden party*

May 20, 2020 - No 10 staff party in the garden

June 18, 2020 - Cabinet Office gathering for private secretary's leaving do

June 19, 2020 - PM's birthday party in Cabinet room

November 13, 2020 - Gathering in the No 10 flat

November 13, 2020 - Special adviser's leaving party organised by Carrie Johnson

November 27, 2020 - Gathering in No 10 for the departure of another special adviser*

December 10, 2020 - Department for Education Christmas party*

December 15, 2020 - Downing Street online Christmas quiz*

December 17, 2020 - 70 Whitehall online Christmas quiz for Cabinet Secretary's private office

December 17, 2020 - Cabinet Office for departure of a senior official

December 17, 2020 - Leaving do for a No 10 official

December 18, 2020 - Downing Street Christmas party

January 14, 2021 - Leaving party for two No 10 private secretaries

April 16, 2021 - Gathering for the departure of a senior No 10 official

April 16, 2021 - Leaving party of another No 10 official

*Police are no longer investigating

With permission I will update the House on the Government’s response to events at home and abroad during the Easter recess. 

I will come to Ukraine in a moment - since I’ve just left a virtual meeting with President Biden, President Macron, Chancellor Scholz and eight other world leaders – but let me begin in all humility by saying that on the 12^th of April I received a fixed penalty notice relating to an event in Downing Street on 19^th of June 2020. 

I paid the fine immediately and I offered the British people a full apology, and I take this opportunity, on the first available sitting day, to repeat my wholehearted apology to the House. 

As soon as I received the notice, I acknowledged the hurt and the anger, and I said that people had a right to expect better of their Prime Minister, and I repeat that again in the House now. 

Let me also say – not by way of mitigation or excuse but purely because it explains my previous words in this House – that it did not occur to me, then or subsequently, that a gathering in the Cabinet Room just before a vital meeting on Covid strategy could amount to a breach of the rules. 

I repeat: that was my mistake and I apologise for it unreservedly. I respect the outcome of the police investigation, which is still underway, and I can only say that I will respect their decision-making and always take the appropriate steps, and as the House will know, I have already taken significant steps to change the way things work in No10. 

And it is precisely because I know that so many people are angry and disappointed, that I feel an even greater sense of obligation to deliver on the priorities of the British people, and to respond in the best traditions of our country to Putin’s barbaric onslaught against Ukraine. 

Our Ukrainian friends are fighting for the life of their nation, and they achieved the greatest feat of arms of the 21^st century by repelling the Russian assault on Kyiv, and the whole House will share my admiration for their heroism and courage. 

Putin arrogantly assumed that he would capture Kyiv in a matter of days, and now the blackened carcasses of his tanks and heavy armour, litter the approaches to the capital on both banks of the Dnieper, are smouldering monuments to his failure. 

Having pulverised the invader’s armoured spearheads, the Ukrainians then counter-attacked and by 6^th April, Putin had been compelled to withdraw his forces from the entire Kyiv region. 

Britain and our allies supplied some of the weaponry, but it was Ukrainian valour and sacrifice which saved their capital. I travelled to Kyiv myself on 9^th April – the first G7 leader to visit since the invasion – and I spent four hours with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy,the indomitable leader of a nation fighting for survival, who gives the roar of a lion-hearted people. 

I assured him of the implacable resolve of the United Kingdom   - shared across this House – to join with our allies and give his brave people the weapons they need to defend themselves. 

When the President and I went for an impromptu walk through central Kyiv, we happened upon a man who immediately expressed his “love” for Britain and the British people and he was generous enough to say – quite unprompted, I should reassure the House – “I will tell my children and grandchildren they must always remember that Britain helped us.” 

But the urgency is even greater now because Putin has regrouped his forces and launched a new offensive in the Donbas. We knew this danger would come, and when I welcomed President Duda of Poland to Downing Street on 7^th April, and Chancellor Scholz the following day, we discussed exactly how we could provide the arms that Ukraine would desperately need to counter Putin’s next onslaught. 

On 12^th April I spoke to President Biden to brief him on my visit to Kyiv, and how we will intensify our support for President Zelenskyy, and I proposed that our long-term goal must be to strengthen and fortify Ukraine to the point where Russia will never dare to invade again. 

Just as our foreign policy must look to the long term, the same is true of this Government’s domestic priorities, and as we face the economic aftershocks of Covid and the consequences of Russian aggression, that is above all in tackling the impact on British energy prices and on consumers and on family bills. 

That’s why we are spending over £9 billion to help families struggling with their bills; we’re helping families to insulate their homes and reduce costs, and to end our dependence on Putin’s oil and gas and to ensure that energy is cheaper in the long term, we published on 7^th April our new strategy to make British energy greener, more affordable and more secure. 

We will massively expand offshore wind, and in the country that split the atom, we will build a new reactor not every decade, but every year. This Government is joining with our allies to face down Putin’s aggression abroad, while addressing the toughest problems at home, helping millions of families with the cost of living, making our streets safer, and funding the NHS to clear the Covid backlog. 

My job is to work every day to make the British people safer, more secure and more prosperous and that is what I will continue to do and I commend this statement to the House.      

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