Carrie Johnson offered to bring cake to Boris Johnson’s birthday celebration inside Number 10 during the first lockdown, the Sue Gray inquiry has allegedly been told.
Ms Gray’s highly awaited report has been delayed after the Metropolitan Police asked her to make “minimal reference” to events they are looking at, in order to “avoid any prejudice to our investigation”.
The move by the Met has been highly criticised with MPs urging the senior civil servant to ignore the force’s requests and publish an uncensored version immediately.
It is likely Ms Gray will publish a heavily redacted copy of her report over the weekend or on Monday, rather than waiting for police inquiries to conclude.
According to the Telegraph, Ms Gray’s reports includes details of Mrs Johnson’s messages with a senior Downing Street employee about her husband’s birthday.
Mrs Johnson reportedly organised a surprise gathering for the prime minister complete with a chorus of “happy birthday” on the afternoon of June 19, 2020.
It has now emerged that Mrs Johnson messaged staff in Downing Street offering to bring cake, the Telegraph reported.
Officials involved in the so-called “partygate” investigation are examining messages between Mrs Johnson and at least one other senior member of staff ahead of the gathering.
However, it is believed that Mrs Johnson did not end up buying a cake.
Sources close to Boris Johnson also claimed that a Number 10 official organised the event.
This is disputed by several insiders who attended the gathering, who claim Mrs Johnson organised it.
Interior designer Lulu Lytle admitted that she went to the gathering but insisted she only stopped by “briefly”.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is understood to have briefly attended as he entered the room before a Covid strategy meeting.
Picnic food from M&S was eaten during the afternoon gathering which began after 2pm and lasted around 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, Mrs Johnson and Ms Lytle reportedly presented the PM with a cake.
Martin Reynolds, Mr Johnson’s under-fire principal private secretary, also attended, alongside director of communications Jack Doyle and head of operations Shelley Williams-Walker.
Indoor social gatherings were forbidden at the time.
On the same day, Mr Johnson visited a school in Hertfordshire where pupils sang him happy birthday as he posed socially distanced with them.
The publication of the long-awaited Gray report into alleged lockdown-busting parties was thrown into disarray on Tuesday when Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick who had long resisted calls to investigate, announced her officers had opened a criminal probe.
Scotland Yard confirmed on Friday evening that it had received the material requested from the Cabinet Office to support its investigation.
The force said officers would now examine this “without fear or favour” to establish whether any rules were broken.
The Met had been criticised by legal experts and Tory MPs for urging Ms Gray to limit the publication of her investigation into allegations of lockdown-breaking parties in No 10.
But the force insisted on Friday evening that it had not delayed publication of the report.
On Saturday Morning Tory backbencher Sir Christopher Chope accused the Met of overstepping its functions and of committing an ‘abuse of power’.
He told Radio 4’s Today programme: “I don’t think it’s anything of their business. This is a Cabinet Office inquiry and the findings have been concluded, and they’ve been shared – I don’t know why – with the Metropolitan Police. Now the Metropolitan Police seem to be interfering both in the content of the report and trying to prevent it being published in an unredacted form.
“Under the rules of law which apply in our country, this is not sub judice. If they were about to bring charges, or had brought charges against individuals, then it obviously would have been sub judice and it wouldn’t even be able to be discussed in the House of Commons. But it’s not sub judice, and that’s why I think this is an abuse of power by the Metropolitan Police.”
Adam Holloway, a key Johnson ally and member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, told the BBC this morning: “The fact is we’re not getting a full and rounded view from what we’re getting from the media and that’s why I – and probably Boris too – would like to see the whole of Sue Gray’s report and as soon as possible, so we can end this madness.”
