Boris Johnson is expected to receive Sue Gray’s censored inquiry into allegations of lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street on Monday.
The senior civil servant was understood to be preparing to hand over her long-awaited report to No 10 after working to pare it back following a request from the Metropolitan Police.
The Prime Minister insisted “I stick absolutely to what I’ve said in the past” when questioned about his reported denials of any wrongdoing to Tory MPs.
Parliamentary sources said they were expecting the Prime Minister 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.”
The Prime Minister 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.
Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick announced last week that officers have launched 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 controversially 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 Met’s request.
