3 February 2022

A Damning Document

Gray’s interim report.

By Robert Kilconner

The findings of Sue Gray’s interim report may have been restricted by a number of the incidents becoming sub judice but at least that keeps the report to a readable length. 12 pages, including appendices, is not a lot and two pages of findings and conclusions is spare indeed but finding (iii) says all that needs to be said by including the words:

“There were failures of leadership and judgment by different parts of No 10 and the Cabinet Office at different times. Some of the events should not have been allowed to take place. Other events should not have been allowed to develop as they did.”

Wherever the “he knew/he didn’t know” debate may come out, No 10 and the Cabinet Office were out of control and a Prime Minister whose leadership and judgement failed in relation to his core team clearly does not have the right skills to fulfil his office.

That is the central point and everything else is a distraction, and a distraction encouraged by the media. It is unhelpful, for example, for the BBC to dig out people who have lost loved ones and to report on how let down they feel. That is not news at all. If the Archbishop of Canterbury, one of the Kardashians or the Captain of the English football team was upset, that would at least convey some, albeit rather useless, information to the reader. That it is possible to find someone bereaved who feels betrayed is as inevitable as the fact that there will be others who think the PM a model of probity. Stating that fact with supporting photographs doesn’t inform the reader of anything at all, but that doesn’t stop the BBC website from featuring interviews to that effect on its homepage as if they were a piece of brilliant investigative report. Why, oh why, do they publish bilge which distracts everyone from the real point?

So let us leave them and come back to that point. Boris Johnson is not a stupid man and by now he must be uncomfortably aware that having fought his way to the office to which he had always aspired he does not have the right talents to do the job. It is a common enough dilemma and you see it in all walks of life: the technician promoted to the head of the company which he is incompetent to run; the brilliant lawyer who becomes a divisive and foolish Head of Chambers; the sportsman whose excellence with the bat is no help when he becomes an ineffectual captain. The right answer when this happens is either to stand down or to become a shadow behind some abler delegate. More usually, however, the man in the wrong job believes that he can put things right by changes in his approach or moving the focus back onto the things which got him into office to begin with. Produce more brilliant technical work; write better legal opinions; wield the bat more effectively; that should do it shouldn’t it? Unfortunately the answer is “no” but it requires unusual self-awareness to recognised that.

So how has Boris reacted? A possible call to Vladimir Putin and a tour of the danger spots in Eastern Europe. Normally these would be good things and this column is generally in favour of maintaining contact with the Russian leader. That said the shallowness of the strategy in the present circumstances is easily demonstrated by trying to imagine what could usefully be said in the Putin call. Would Boris merely repeat the threat of Western sanctions? Putin must be well aware of that by now. Or is there some ingenious solution which he would like to broker? That would certainly be worthwhile but surely communications of this sort begin through diplomatic channels. No, the call and the tour are electorate-facing and designed to promote an image within the UK. They do not demonstrate leadership and judgement at all.

So, it is as simple and tragic as that. A Prime Minister who, though possessing many qualities, does not possess those necessary for the job and shows no sign of changing. There is only one right answer to that.