The Sue Gray report may look like it’s about the government, but it’s really about Boris Johnson

Editorial: Some of the more loyal Conservative MPs have joked that the whole scandal is about a birthday cake – it isn’t

(Dave Brown)

In an attempt to belittle the Sue Gray report and the police investigation into breaches of lockdown laws in Downing Street, some of the more loyal Conservative MPs have joked that the whole scandal is about a birthday cake.

Not only is such banter in poor taste, it is actively damaging their prime minister’s slim chance of surviving the revelations in the report. It is not all about a birthday party cake, or wine or cheese platters for that matter. What Partygate was – and is – about is Boris Johnson and the political culture he inculcated; not least the sense of entitlement and “one rule for us few and another rule for the many outside”.

One misguided Tory MP even suggests that everyone in the country was breaking the rules. The great majority were not. The great majority, of all kinds of political persuasions and none, played by the rules, to protect themselves and others, and out of respect for the law.