How Boris Johnson went from landslide victory to no-confidence vote

A long-awaited internal investigation released May 25 offered little reprieve for Johnson, laying the blame squarely on the prime minister’s office for hosting events at Downing Street that “should not have been allowed to happen.”

The report, compiled by senior civil servant Sue Gray, detailed excessive alcohol consumption and partying until near dawn at the center of British politics. Someone was sick from alcohol on June 18, 2020; there was almost a fight at the same event, which Gray described as a “minor altercation.”

The report detailed 16 gatherings between May 2020 and April 2021 at the prime minister’s Downing Street office, his official residence upstairs or the nearby cabinet office.

There were nine photographs of the prime minister at parties in the report, including one of him raising a glass in a toast.

“The senior leadership at the centre, both political and official, must bear responsibility for this culture,” Gray wrote, adding that some junior staff “believed that their involvement in some of these events was permitted given the attendance of senior leaders.”