Sue Gray report Boris Johnson to make statement after receiving initial findings

about 2 years in The Irish Times

UK prime minister Boris Johnson will make a statement to the UK parliament at 3.30pm on Monday on a report into alleged parties at Downing Street.
Earlier the UK government confirmed that Sue Gray had provided an update on her investigation to Mr Johnson’s office.
Mr Johnson’s spokesman said the UK prime minister spoke briefly to Sue Gray on Sunday, but they did not discuss details of the report.
The senior civil servant was understood to be preparing to give her long-awaited report to No 10 after working to pare it back following a request from London’s Metropolitan Police.
Mr Johnson said: “I stick absolutely to what I’ve said in the past” when questioned about his reported denials of any wrongdoing to Tory MPs.
UK parliamentary sources said they were expecting Mr Johnson to make a statement to the House of Commons some time after 3.30pm on Monday.
Downing Street has committed to publishing the report before Mr Johnson addresses MPs, though the cabinet office is yet to confirm when it will be handed over and further delays cannot be ruled out.
Ms Gray’s report was thrown into disarray when Scotland Yard last week requested that she makes only “minimal reference” to events that officers are investigating.
Asked about warnings that the inquiry will be a “whitewash” because of the changes, Mr Johnson said: “You are going to have to wait and see both what Sue says and, of course, what the Met says.”
'Deeply sorry'
Mr Johnson has publicly said he is “deeply sorry for misjudgements” surrounding events in No 10, but insisted no one warned him a garden party in the first lockdown would be against the rules.
In private, however, he is said to have told Conservative MPs who may oust him as prime minister over the saga that he has done nothing wrong.
“You’re going to have to wait and see the outcome of the investigations but, of course, I stick absolutely to what I’ve said in the past,” he said, when asked about those remarks during a visit to a freeport in Tilbury, Essex.
Metropolitan police commissioner Cressida Dick announced last week that officers have started an investigation into alleged Covid-breaches in Downing Street and wider government after being handed information from the Gray inquiry.
But it threw the publication of the Whitehall report into disarray when the force asked Ms Gray to limit what she writes about events under investigation by officers.
Concerned over the prospect of jeopardising a police inquiry, Ms Gray was understood to have complied with the request.
Many Conservative MPs have been waiting to see if the findings include evidence of rule-breaking or misleading statements by the prime minister. If 54 Tory MPs submit letters to Graham Brady, the chair of the influential 1922 Committee, Johnson will face a vote of no confidence.
However, if much of the report is missing due to the police investigation, many might find it hard to reach a conclusion.
The investigation, initiated in December, was led originally by Simon Case, the cabinet secretary. He stepped down from the inquiry soon after the process began after reports that his office also held a social event.
Ms Gray, who was director general of propriety and ethics in the UK cabinet office from 2012 to 2018, took over the inquiry in mid-December. – Agencies

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