Scotland Yard has said it has asked for references to matters it is now investigating to be removed from Sue Gray’s report into parties held in breach of lockdown restrictions at Downing Street.
“For the events the Met is investigating, we asked for minimal reference to be made in the Cabinet Office report,” the Metropolitan police said in a statement on Friday morning.
“The Met did not ask for any limitations on other events in the report, or for the report to be delayed, but we have had ongoing contact with the Cabinet Office, including on the content of the report, to avoid any prejudice to our investigation.”
The force issued the statement in response to questions from journalists about any role it had played in seeking to delay the report.
Boris Johnson has been told it is “time for the truth to be released” as he faced more calls to publish the long-awaited report into “partygate” in full and not “suppress crucial details”.
Officials in the Cabinet Office are still wrangling over the final version of Sue Gray’s findings on a string of alleged Covid rule-breaking parties in Downing Street and other parts of government.
Despite anticipation reaching fever pitch earlier this week that the report on which the prime minister’s premiership could hang was close to completion, its publication was delayed when Scotland Yard opened its own investigation.
Asked on Friday morning why the Gray report hand-in had been delayed, a government minister told LBC: “You will have to ask Sue Gray that, because the timing of the report is up to her.”
“You will have seen, as I have seen, press speculation it is because she’s discussing with lawyers and police exactly what can and can’t go in it,” said the technology minister, Chris Philp.
“But the bottom line is I don’t know, because it is a report she’s compiling independently and I have no visibility of what may or may not be in it, or what her thought process is.”
Asked what he could offer in terms of a defence of the prime minister, Philp said he would not “speculate” on what happened in No 10, amid claims there were parties held at the top of government during lockdown.
He added: “Like everybody else, I’m just going to wait until it is published. I’ll read it very carefully when it comes out and I’m not going to speculate … about what the report may or may not contain and what that may or may not mean.
“Let’s just wait until it comes out. Hopefully it will be soon because I think all of us want to be able to draw a line under this.”
Source: Guardian
