Sue Gray Report

Claire Coutinho Excerpts

Wednesday 25th May 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Yes of course, and I tried to do it in what I said earlier. The answer is that it is part of my job to say thank you to people who work in Government, and that is what I was doing. I believed it was a work event and, indeed, there has been no fine issued to me as a result of my attendance at that event, because that is what I was doing.

[Claire Coutinho (East Surrey) (Con)]

I commend Sue Gray for the report and I understand why people are angry. Having looked at the pictures of the birthday party in the Cabinet Office, I think the Opposition are going to be quite hard pressed to explain why they have such moral outrage about that but not about the late-night beers that happened in Durham. However, one of the things I was very troubled by was the language used towards the custodian. Will the Prime Minister join me now—I am sure the whole House would agree—in expressing the level of respect and gratitude we have to every single cleaner and worker, including all the people in the Tea Room, who work in this place?

[The Prime Minister]

I agree very much with what my hon. Friend has just said. As I said in my opening statement, any rudeness towards a member of staff is absolutely inexcusable and I want whoever was responsible to apologise.