Will Hr Ever Rule the World?
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‘Some of us have rumbled Boris’: The inside story of the week Boris Johnson was fined over Partygate
Boris Johnson was sitting in his wood-panelled office in his country mansion of Chequers when he read the email that his party had been dreading. It was just after 4pm on Tuesday and the Prime Minister had been poised to start a half-hour briefing ahead of a phone call to Joe Biden on a secure transatlantic line.
The Metropolitan Police email, passed on by his lawyer, was written in dry legalese. “On 19th June 2020 at the Cabinet Room 10 Downing Street between 1400 and 1500, you participated in a gathering of two or more people indoors in the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street,” it said.
That was the date of his birthday, when his wife Carrie and others had arranged a celebration during the first Covid lockdown. If this was a delayed birthday present from the Met, it didn’t feel like one.
Mr Johnson had already been informed hours earlier that he and Rishi Sunak would be both sent fixed penalty notices. But under the police’s formal processes, neither of them were given any idea of what the breaches of the law had been. They were told they would have to wait for the details in letters to be delivered by post.
“The message [from the police] was, check your post tomorrow or the day after. They’d just effectively told the world he was going to be getting something and they expected the world to then wait a day or two or whenever the second-class Royal Mail would turn up to say exactly what it was about. It was unsustainable.”
After a plea from Johnson’s lawyer, the police sent the email specifying the offence. Originally, Johnson had not planned to make any public statement. “We always intended to either make a statement to the House or hold a press conference if the House wasn’t sitting,” one insider said. “But how can you hold a press conference when you don’t even know what events they [the police] are talking about?”
Now the PM finally had the detail, there had to be a public response, but the Biden call scheduled for 4.30pm meant he had to stay in Chequers and couldn’t travel back to No.10 for a media briefing. As soon as the call to the US President was over, he drafted his 314-word statement about the birthday gathering.
The BBC’s deputy political editor, Vicki Young, had been told to arrive at 5.30pm for a pooled TV clip at Chequers, to get the PM’s first reaction to the news of his fine. To her surprise, he began by reading carefully from a script. “It did not occur to me that this might have been a breach of the rules,” he said.
Although Johnson normally speaks without notes for such clips, he had treated this like a mini Downing Street press conference, where he begins with a statement then takes questions, one aide said.
Young was originally granted three questions, then bargained for four, and like all dogged reporters pushed it further. Would he resign? Hadn’t his authority to tell others to obey the law been undermined? Did he take responsibility for the 50 police fines overall? Hadn’t he’d lied to Parliament? Didn’t he understand his own laws? Would more fines be coming his way? After her fifth question, she felt a tap on the shoulder to say the session was over as the PM had to go.
Johnson, who had been speaking in front of an 18th-century landscape painting, ‘The Russell and Revett Families with Fishing Rods and Game’, had the look of a man who felt hunted himself. Perhaps aptly for the PM’s critics, the painter Charles Philips was a friend of William Hogarth, whose famous Rake’s Progress depicts the downfall of a partying spendthrift who breaks the law.
More fines now seem inevitable, not least as the birthday gathering was the shortest and is seen at the milder end of the spectrum of events that took place during lockdown. But Johnson’s allies insist that multiple fines won’t change the political calculus.
“If you’re caught speeding at 35mph four times, that doesn’t mean that you were speeding at 140mph. It doesn’t mean that you really endangered life because the cumulative effect of all your speeding in 30mph zones amounts to 140pmh, does it?” one said.
More from Politics“It may be a neat mathematical trick, but it’s morally and legalistically not the case. And if you look at the nature of the event, when a guy steps into an office immediately outside his own for nine minutes, then it doesn’t mean that a second one goes over some new threshold, does it?”
Johnson certainly had the Cabinet’s backing. The first senior minister to make a public response following the lunchtime news of a Prime Ministerial fine was Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland Secretary. He tweeted at 4pm that the third series of Channel 4’s Derry Girls was out that day. He messaged a colleague that he was “just getting on with the job”, complete with a smiling saint emoji.
Lewis later tweeted his full support for the PM and Chancellor, but it was Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries who won the prize for the first Cabinet minister to go public with her backing, even before any statement from Johnson. He had offered a full apology and was “delivering on the priorities of the British people”, she said. Although it took several hours for Sunak to make clear he was staying put, the show of loyalty was eventually made.
Dorries and other ministers had retweeted Johnson’s own tweet that afternoon, which revealed he had updated Biden on his trip to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky just a few days earlier.
And for the PM’s supporters it was his 36-hour round trip to Ukraine’s capital that remained the most important event of the week. That, plus as a long planned announcement on the No.10 “grid”, of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda, were seen as proof of him getting on with the day job. Partygate setbacks, countered by a political fightback, look like the running narrative for coming weeks too.
Johnson had been under strict orders not to let slip any hint of the Ukraine trip, maintaining a poker face when asked at a No.10 press conference alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz if he intended to visit Zelensky in person. “We’re trying to help people come from Ukraine,” Johnson told a German reporter.
In fact, a request to visit Kyiv had been with Zelensky for weeks and had already been cleared. Travelling with just one Downing Street aide who had military experience, he went by plane, train and road to Ukraine and met Zelensky on Saturday.
Unlike a tightly controlled visit staged by EU Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen, Johnson went on an impromptu walkabout in the capital to help his friend show the world how something like normality was returning to its streets. “He had no idea who he would meet. There’s not many politicians on the planet who will take that political risk, let alone the security one,” one ally said.
The Ukrainian embassy in London broke the news with a tweet that said ‘Surprise’. In the end, Johnson’s trip was widely praised even by some of his arch critics, particularly after the Ukrainian government tweeted a video of the walkabout. One man praised Britain’s contribution to his country’s war effort, while a woman gave Johnson and Zelensky ceramic cockerels – a symbol of Ukrainian defiance since a pottery rooster remained standing on a dresser after the Russian bombardment of Borodyanka.
On his return to the UK, Johnson took the cockerels with him to Chequers. On Monday, his spokeswoman said he intended to “get some rest and spend some time with family” for a few days at the country retreat. He had a short window of time before his speech due on Thursday in Kent to coincide with another secret foreign trip – that of Home Secretary Priti Patel to Rwanda, where she would unveil a controversial new plan to deport migrant men who illegally crossed the English channel.
Back in the UK, Wednesday’s confirmation of soaring inflation of 7 per cent sent fresh “cost of living crisis” jitters among Tory backbenchers, many of whom are campaigning in their seats ahead of the local elections on May 5.
One backbencher confided: “Some of us have rumbled Boris, but the people in our local parties haven’t. Many of them still love him. The penny will only drop if we’re losing councillors that they’ve bust a gut to get elected. That’s when the scales may fall from their eyes.”
A former Cabinet minister said the Partygate fines, with the threat of more to come and the full report by civil service ethics chief Sue Gray, would make life very uncomfortable. “We are all being tainted by it. It’s when that dawns on the youngsters [the 2017 and 2019 election intakes] that things will move.
“This is irreversible, corrosive damage. The local elections may be mixed, but when we’ve had the Sue Grey report, when Ukraine is out of the way, people will realise we can’t go on with him.
“Things may move when one of two things happens on Ukraine. Either the war comes to a resolution, or people just get bored of the military pornography that we’re watching all the time. And that might happen by the summer.
“There’s also bound to be another Boris cock-up, it’s probably already in the queue to get in the public domain”
One former minister said Sunak’s rapid demise helped Johnson. “He’s helped by the sheer paucity of candidates. His strategy – much as I’m critical of it – of having short poppies around him, is working.
“Priti? She’s too dim. Truss has too few friends. Hunt may be too weak. Tugendhat has a fan club, but an anti-fan club too.
“But to be honest, looking at the Western leadership of Biden, Macron and Scholz, you don’t have to do much to be better than them to make an impact in helping Ukraine.”
A former Cabinet minister said: “Some of my colleagues dismiss this and say ‘oh, it’s just parties’. No it’s not. It’s about trust, it’s about honour and integrity, it’s about heavy handed legislation. It’s about a Conservative belief in the rule of law and the law being universal. It’s that quote by [ex law chief] Lord Denning: “No matter how high you are, the law is above you”.
And one senior backbencher said: “The scandal which people can associate with their own lives is the one that kills you. Most Boris ‘scandals’, whether they are about his girlfriends, or whatever, these don’t impinge on Mrs. Smith on the council estate in my constituency. But if she hasn’t buried her own grandmother, or seen her dad in hospital or her daughter’s not been allowed to get married and these buggers have been having a party or ten, that’s got direct relevance.
“Sunak showed a complete misunderstanding of the British psyche, to think ‘I can tax you money which you can’t afford, or not help you with your bills, you’ve got to turn your heating down or shop at Aldi rather than Sainsbury’s, but my family has been saving 20 million quid in tax’, on what planet would that ever fly?”
“It’s about the bridge to the imagination of the ordinary voter. The expenses scandal hurt, but it didn’t have anything like the bite of this. Why? Because everyone’s affected. People in the smarter housing estates in my seat had expense accounts and didn’t get that bothered, but for others those sums were higher than their annual salaries.”
One Tory MP in a northern seat added: “What’s different about this is the involvement of Sunak. Yeah, it’s the final nail in the coffin of any ambition to be Prime Minister. But it’s more than that. A few months ago, butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth, now he’s tainted like Boris and it looks like the whole Government is tainted. It’s not just one rotten apple and our middle class supporters are very angry.
“Working class voters think we’re all crooks, what matters to them is they’re really suffering on tax and the cost of living. RPI is actually 9 per cent and the poorer voters feel it harder because they spend more of their income on food and fuel.”
“So we may be getting a double whammy on this. We get hit on integrity in the south and hit on NICs [the National Insurance rise] and rising bills in the north.”
More from PoliticsDominant Australia rule the cricket world in every possible way
Sent in by Knight just as they had been by West Indies, Healy and Haynes showed due deference to England’s seasoned new ball pair of Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole. Save for a couple of sweet pull shots by Haynes, the openers carefully accumulated for most of the first 10 overs against a swinging and occasionally seaming ball.
Healy caught up with a couple of powerful strokes of her own when Sciver entered the attack, and accelerated ominously from there.
Australia celebrate winning the 2022 World Cup final over England.Credit:Getty Images
England’s big chance to get into the game was squandered by a couple of grassed chances. Haynes was dropped by Danni Wyatt off Kate Cross at point on 47. Three balls later Sciver missed a harder chance at midwicket when Healy pulled a shortish ball. As if to rub it in, Healy thumped a boundary to midwicket, also off Cross, to raise her 50.
Never straining to hit the ball too hard – 26 boundaries accrued without a six – Healy was at the peak of her powers.
Without those wickets, England were sent ducking for cover as boundaries rained down, barely slowed by the loss of a few quick wickets in the closing overs – the last 10 of the innings reaped no fewer than 120.
Defending the second highest total posted in any men’s or women’s cup final, just three runs short of the 359 tallied by Ricky Ponting’s team at Johannesburg in 2003, Schutt showed why she is one of international cricket’s most dependable performers.
Jess Jonassen gets Kate Cross caught and bowled.Credit:Getty Images
After varying her line by going around the wicket, Schutt reverted to over and snaked a vicious in-ducker through Danni Wyatt to pluck out leg stump. The ball that pinned Tammy Beaumont was a little less spectacular but just as effective for an lbw verdict.
Schutt’s precision was just as well, for Darcie Brown lacked consistency at the other end, her first five overs costing 36. Knight, lbw to King on the back foot, and Amy Jones, beaten through the air by Jonassen and well held by King, did not stay long.
Sciver’s innings under lights kept England at least in mathematical touch beyond the halfway point, but King’s deceit of Sophia Dunkley – bowled around her legs for the second time in the tournament – was a vital strike. A delectable leg break to defeat Brunt, the stumping completed artfully by Healy, tilted the night definitively.
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In the end the Australians won out with 71 runs to spare, sparking wild celebrations. Not only did they signify the return of the only major trophy to elude Australia over the past five years, but placed an exclamation point on Cricket Australia’s development of a fully professional system that is the envy of the world.
Its depth was shown by how King, Tahlia McGrath and Brown have contributed this tournament, and how cricketers as good as the injured Sophie Molineux, Georgia Wareham and Tayla Vlaeminck have not been visibly missed. Annabel Sutherland, too, was unfortunate to have to make way for Perry.
As a consequence of that deep well of focused and flourishing talent, Lanning’s team have enjoyed a run of dominance statistically without peer in the history of the game, and one that shows precious few signs of being quelled by the competition.
Formula E's high-level electric racing offers glimpse into the future
Formula E, the world's top electric vehicle racing series, returns to the track this weekend with a pair of races in Rome.
The global series is slowly gaining a foothold in the U.S., which hosted a race in nearly every season since Formula E's inception.
This year, the series added its first American-born driver: Oliver Askew. The Florida native came up racing karts as an eight-year-old before switching to cars in his late teens.
"When I first got into the karting, it was more of a father-son hobby," Askew said. "It wasn't until I was 14 or 15 years old that I began to realize I'm getting old quickly, and growing up quickly, and I need to decide what's more important, the schooling or pursuing motorsports."
Askew, now 25, left high school to pursue a career in racing, a move he called a "leap of faith."
It's led to plenty of success.
He won the 2019 Indy Lights series, one of the top development series for race car drivers, which paved the way for his IndyCar debut in 2020.
His move to Formula E this year marks the first time he is racing electric vehicles professionally.
"I just feel like this car suits me and suits my driving style," Askew said. "I'm not saying one is better than the other, or I enjoy one over the other. It's just a different approach and a different fulfillment."
Changing attitudes toward electric vehicles
Formula E's arrival represents a broader shift in attitude toward electric vehicles.
"This technology needed to be pushed and needed to be advanced," said Julia Palle, the sustainability director of Formula E. "The technology around electrification was really the focus."
The competition within Formula E helped spur electric vehicle development over the past decade.
Race day vehicles, which had a top speed of 140 miles per hour from 2014 to 2018, will have a top speed of 200 miles per hour beginning in 2023.
Palle said the gap between consumer electric vehicles and Formula E vehicles is smaller than in other racing series, enabling manufacturers to apply lessons from the race track to the production line.
"Jaguar, from the couple of seasons they were involved, used some of their learnings to develop the I-PACE," Palle said. "That's a car that you and I, if we want to, can go buy tomorrow."
Formula E is also unique for its focus on sustainability, a word which is written into the racing series' mission statement.
Research shows the race cars' carbon footprint accounts for less than one percent of pollution associated with Formula E.
Palle said Formula E leadership is focused on improving sustainability for three main car components.
- Tires. Formula E cars use one tire under all conditions. They are made from recycled material and designed to be recycled when they've outlived their usefulness.
- Batteries. Palle said Formula E partnered with Belgium-based Umicore on a battery recycling program. Over ninety percent of metals, and over sixty percent of lithium, is recovered from every battery.
- Chassis. The carbon fiber from the chassis is recycled using technology once used to recycle rockets and planes. A collection box is available at each race for teams to recycle their broken parts. "It's popular," Palle noted, "especially when there are crashes during tests and races."
A long road ahead
Formula E could get some competition in the near future.
In mid-March, NASCAR's chief operating officer, Steve O'Donnell, said the American stock car racing series is "exploring some opportunities around an exhibition series in" the electric vehicle space, citing interest from manufacturers like Ford, Chevrolet and Toyota.
"It's important for us to explore that space," O'Donnell said. "I think there's a lot of interest from our current partners to be part of that."
"As I understand it, the primary mover is the noise," said Sridhar Lakshmanan, an associate professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and a leading voice in the world of vehicle innovation. "They felt that electric vehicle racing would allow them to move racing into the heart of population centers, closer to where people live."
Lakshmanan said one of the biggest challenges in any electric vehicle racing series is making up the power gap with internal combustion counterparts.
The current land-speed record for an electric vehicle is 353 miles per hour, set by Team Vesco Racing in November 2021.
The scorching speed is not quite as fast as the world record speed for an internal combustion engine: 448.7 miles per hour, set by Danny Campbell in 2019.
"The biggest problem they face today is speed," Lakshmanan said. "There are ways to torque motors that can potentially reach those speeds, provided you have batteries with reasonable size that can drive those motors. But that's where the rub is."
Lakshmanan, like Palle, believes competition can spur development in the electric vehicle space, particularly for batteries, but also in the areas of braking, speed, safety and life-cycle cost.
"As people push the boundaries of how fast they can go, how much charge they can store, and how light they are," Lakshmanan said, "performance is going to drive electric vehicles, in some ways, parallel to how performance vehicles drove internal combustion engines."
Fueling development
Racing and automotive innovation have gone hand in hand since the turn of the 20th century, when a young Henry Ford won a "Sweepstakes" race to help fund his fledgling vehicle venture.
Ford's two-cylinder engine traveled at the blistering top speed of seventy-two miles per hour.
"A nobody, some guy from Michigan, manages to pull out a victory in the race," said Matt Anderson, curator at The Henry Ford, an automotive museum in suburban Detroit. "It sets him on the way to ultimately founding the Ford Motor Company in 1903."
A few years later, the first Indianapolis 500 would be the site of another major innovation: The rearview mirror.
Ray Harroun attached rearview mirrors to his car. It's believed to be the first rearview mirror ever used. Harroun's competitors "had the driver, and then had a riding mechanic," Anderson said. "That person would be responsible for operating the car, but also as a pair of eyes in the back of the driver's head to look for other cars coming up behind them."
Harroun won the race.
His rivals were so angry that they put rules in place requiring the use of a riding mechanic.
To Anderson, it's one of many anecdotes that embody the competitive spirit of auto racing.
"You're not going to win a race unless you're willing to explore new ideas and try new things in order to innovate," Anderson said. "There's a strict rule book, but people are always testing the limits of those rules, and seeing how far they can push something."
He believes electric vehicle racing is a natural evolution of the sport.
"We're going to see things like lighter batteries, more efficient motors," Anderson said. "One way or another, electric racing is going to become a thing. It's just going to be necessary. The technology in our production cars is going to move toward electricity, and you can't have a racing series that appears to be behind the times of the cars we're driving out on the street."
Need for speed
Askew, the 25-year-old driver seeking his first Formula E victory in Rome, said the acceleration of a Formula E car would "completely blow people away."
"It does have a lot of low-end torque, and it's very suitable for the street tracks that we go to," Askew said.
For him, the future of Formula E is mostly background noise. His focus is on winning races.
Often, that means thinking less.
"I'm at my best in the car when I'm not thinking at all," Askew said. "When I'm in the zone, as a lot of sports figures call it, and letting my natural body and my instincts take over. My success comes from being in that place."
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