Simon Case: who is Boris Johnson’s Partygate ‘fall guy’?

Boris Johnson is reportedly planning to make Britain’s leading civil servant the scapegoat when Sue Gray’s long-awaited report into lockdown parties is published this week.

Cabinet Secretary Simon Case is “set to come under heavy pressure” to stand down, with the Gray report “expected to conclude that he bears ‘ultimate responsibility’ for the Partygate scandal”, said The Telegraph.

If Gray’s report brings to an end Case’s tenure, it would mark a calamitous fall from grace for a man considered by many to be one of Whitehall’s finest operators.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Bristol to Cambridge

Case was born in Bristol in 1978 and attended the independent Bristol Grammar School. He read history at Cambridge, where he was “an enthusiastic cyclist, runner and swimmer”, and as “a master rower”, also served as president of the university’s Lightweight Rowing Club, said Tatler.

The future cabinet secretary went on to complete a PhD in political history at Queen Mary University London, where “he was praised for his ability to speedily grasp complicated subjects”, added the magazine. His thesis was titled The Joint Intelligence Committee and the German Question, 1947–61.

‘Getting things done’

Case joined the civil service in 2006 and held roles in the Cabinet Office, the Northern Ireland Office and GCHQ, as well as overseeing the 2012 Olympic Games.

In 2016, then prime minister David Cameron appointed Case as his principle private secretary. According to The Telegraph’s associate editor Camilla Tominey, “legend has it” that Cameron later wanted to nominate Case for a knighthood for his service, “only for the rookie to turn it down”.

Case stayed on as principal private secretary when Theresa May took over, despite reportedly “sometimes getting on Theresa’s nerves”. He left No. 10 in 2017 to work on Northern Ireland border issues connected to Brexit, before quitting to become Prince William’s right-hand man.

But Case returned to politics during the Covid pandemic and was promoted to cabinet secretary, in a bid to “make Downing Street less contingent on Dominic Cummings”, Tominey continued. Then aged 41, Case was the youngest ever head of the civil service.

The “Barbour jacket-wearing former securocrat has gained a formidable reputation as one of Westminster’s most slick and sophisticated operators”. Described as a “passionate unionist” but also “a bit of a gossip”, the father of three has a reputation for “getting things done” that is said to have impressed Johnson.

Human shield

Case was originally asked by Johnson to head up the investigation into lockdown parties, but was forced to step down following reports that a Christmas party quiz in 2020 was hosted in his office.

Although Case was not among dozens of people fined by the Metropolitan Police for attending lockdown-breaching gatherings in Downing Street, Gray’s report, due this week,is expected to make “very grim reading” for the cabinet secretary, said The Times.

“He’s likely to be criticised and is the last senior one left, so if Johnson is looking for a human shield on the Gray report he might be it,” a Whitehall source told the paper.

The Observer’s political editor Toby Helm reported that senior officials were “braced” for Case to be “so heavily criticised that he will have to offer his resignation, or be sacked by Johnson” in order for the PM “to be able to say he has acted decisively and learned lessons”.

“That is probably why he [Case] is still there [and not moved from his post already],” said one source. “Because Johnson needs a body.”