So did members of their constituency associations. Many Tory MPs watched Johnson’s performance closely on Monday as they agonised over whether to send letters to Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 committee, calling for the PM to go. Despite this, Gray had been highly critical in her broad summary, saying there had been serious failings of leadership at No 10 that had allowed a string of events to take place and develop at the heart of power, where she suggested an unprofessional drinking culture had taken root. She had been told to pare back her report by the Metropolitan police – who are now investigating a dozen parties in Downing Street, including several attended by Johnson. He had come to the Commons to make a statement on an initial report into the “partygate” scandal by the senior civil servant Sue Gray. This was supposed to be Johnson’s time for contrition. Within hours, lawyers for Savile’s victims were accusing Johnson of “weaponising their suffering” in an attempt to deflect attention from his own problems, and reported that those they represented were “angry, upset and disgusted” by the prime minister’s comments.
MPs on all sides of the House viewed the comment as far beyond acceptable boundaries of political knockabout and straight out of the Trump playbook.
