Boris Johnson yet to receive Sue Gray report and says it’s ‘total rhubarb’ he authorised Kabul animal airlift – as it happened

Boris Johnson on a visit in North Wales on Thursday. No 10 says it still has not received the Sue Gray report. Photograph: Peter Byrne/AP

6.04pm GMT

Afternoon summary

• Downing Street has still not received the Sue Gray report into “partygate”, according to a briefing this afternoon, leading to speculation that it will now not be published until Monday.

• Labour has said it is increasingly clear that Boris Johnson has lied about his involvement in the decision to authorise the evacuation of dogs and cats from Afghanisation as part of the humanitarian airlift in August. The shadow levelling up secretary, Lisa Nandy, made the claim about the PM following the publication yesterday of emails showing that Foreign Office officials thought Johnson had agreed to the evacuation of the animals.

"Somebody is lying about what happened" about the evacuation of animals from Afghanistan, says shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy

"It's become increasingly clear that the prime minister's story is not credible, he has not told the truth"https://t.co/cmAJ0mFVIm pic.twitter.com/1rtCkZBsUY

— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) January 27, 2022

Johnson today dismissed the claims that he intervened personally on behalf of the animals as “rhubarb”. (See 1.42pm.) But No 10 has failed to explain why officials in Whitehall, and others (see 3.51pm), thought he was involved, what conversations he had with people about this, and why Johnson’s parliamentary private secretary, Trudy Harrison, was involved in trying to help facilitate the airlift. After the PM’s interview, Newsnight’s Sima Kotecha released extracts from two emails showing that Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, and a senior diplomat both wanted advice from No 10 as to whether the animal charity, Nowzad, should get help. The BBC reports:

In one, a senior official to then-foreign secretary Dominic Raab said Mr Raab was “seeking a steer from No 10” on whether the charity’s staff should be called forward for evacuation.

Another, from the PM’s special representative for Afghanistan, Nigel Casey, suggests National Security Adviser Sir Stephen Lovegrove was asked to “seek clear guidance for us from No 10 ASAP on what they would like us to do”.

Peers have called for Zac Goldsmith to explain why his office sent an email last August which said Johnson had authorised the animal airlift if that was not the case.

• Liz Truss has been criticised for taking a private jet to Australia for official business rather than using a scheduled flight.

Updated at 6.28pm GMT

5.19pm GMT

The i’s Paul Waugh has dug out a choice quote from when Liz Truss took a rather different approach to the question of what travel arrangements were most suitable for ministers from the one she adopts now. (See 3.11pm.)

After reports that Liz Truss took a specially chartered flight to Australia, here's a quote from the 'Back to Black' cost-cutting document she co-authored in 2009: pic.twitter.com/zrCpzdMjLb

— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) January 27, 2022