SENIOR civil servant Sue Gray could publish her report tonight into lockdown breaking parties in Downing Street despite the Metropolitan Police investigation into potential criminality, it has been reported.
The Mirror, citing Whitehall sources, has said that Gray has cleared the publication with Met officers and intends to give it to Boris Johnson this evening.
The report would then be made public as early as tomorrow, in a dramatic U-turn.
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The revelations come after Paymaster General Michael Ellis was forced to answer questions in the House of Commons relating to the status of Gray’s report after the Met announced they would be investigating the alleged parties in Downing Street over the past two years.
Ellis refused to say when the report will be published or allay fears that it may be redacted in some way during a tense exchange with fellow MPs on Tuesday.
According to The Times, Gray has been liaising closely with the Met, which has signed off on the contents of the report.
However, it is also claimed that the final decision on if it will be published, when and what will be released is the decision of the Prime Minister.
Gray reportedly will hand over her report to the PM later this week
It was noted that there were expectations that the report will be released in full.
The Mirror reports that it is likely the report will make it into the public domain ahead of PMQs on Wednesday.
The SNP have said it is right that the report isn’t “kicked into the long grass” while the parallel Met investigation takes place.
UPDATE: Sue Gray still intends to publish her report this week despite police investigation acc to @oliver_wright.
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) January 25, 2022
She has now cleared publication with the Met and plans to hand it over to Boris Johnson later this week. https://t.co/mUYSLjVf0R
SNP’s Westminster Depute Leader Kristen Oswald MP said: “There is nothing stopping Ms Gray’s report from being published as planned, given that the Metropolitan Police has not raised any objections.
“Any attempts to block or delay publication of the report is just another pitiful attempt from a Prime Minister who knows his days in office are numbered.
"Tory MPs must finally do the decent thing and remove him from office. If they fail to act, they will destroy any last remnants of public trust in this arrogant and out of touch Tory government.
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“The people of Scotland continue to look on in horror at this corrupt and dysfunctional Westminster system. Only by becoming an independent country can we finally escape this broken Westminster system for good.”
Johnson didn’t attend the urgent question asked by Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner in the Commons on Tuesday regarding the status of Gray’s report.
He did however appear to give a statement on the ongoing situation with Ukraine and Russia, and at the beginning made reference to the police investigation.
Johnson told MPs: “A few weeks ago I commissioned an independent inquiry into a series of events in Downing Street, in the Cabinet Office as well as some other Whitehall departments that may have constituted potential breaches of the Covid regulations.
Johnson is facing increased pressure amid the Met investigation into partygate
“That process has quite properly involved sharing information continuously with the Metropolitan Police, so I welcome the Met’s decision to conduct its own investigation because I believe this will help to give the public the clarity it needs and help to draw a line under matters.”
Earlier on Tuesday Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick would not specify which parties were under investigation and was not able to say how long the investigation could take.
But she said she did not anticipate any difficulty in obtaining the evidence necessary “in order to get to the right conclusions”, adding that the force will provide updates on its progress at “significant points”.
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