Boris Johnson’s deputy today bizarrely claimed he cannot confess to lockdown parties - because it would prejudice the police.
Dominic Raab said the Prime Minister would be “criticised from all quarters” if he “professed publicly” that he attended a rules-busting bash in No10.
“If he did, if he started professing publicly this or that around any one of those allegations, he would be criticised from all quarters for pre-empting what is for the police,” Mr Raab told the BBC.
That is despite the fact police regularly use confessions as evidence.
Mr Raab previously claimed "the sea was closed" at his holiday resort while Kabul fell, and said he "hadn't quite understood" the importance of the Dover-Calais crossing.
The Deputy Prime Minister is an Oxford and Cambridge graduate who worked as a City lawyer, then for the Foreign Office helping bring war criminals to justice in The Hague.
He is also in charge of the court system, as Justice Secretary.
Asked if the PM had ever acknowledged privately that he did wrong, Mr Raab replied: “He’s said throughout… that he believes he acted in good faith on the advice he had all the time.”
But he added: “What you’re tempting me to do is start to comment by stealth on the individual claims and assertions of the 12 incidents that have gone to police.
Mr Raab also dodged saying whether Mr Johnson is still claiming there were no parties in Downing Street. Instead, he replied: “He’s expressed that contrition for his overall responsibility for what takes place in No10”.
Police are investigating 12 separate gatherings - including four that Boris Johnson attended and one in the Prime Minister's Downing Street flat - to find out if laws were broken after the Sue Gray report.
Punishments for those who have broken the rules could be limited to fixed penalty notices - which might not be publicly disclosed.
Mr Raab today stopped short of explicitly saying the police findings should be published in full.
But he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Justice must be done and seen to be done.
"But I don't think I need to lecture or indeed advise the Metropolitan Police about how to conduct an investigation."
Asked whether Mr Johnson should quit if he is issued with a fixed penalty notice for breaching coronavirus rules, Mr Raab said: "Let's wait and see ... Allow the police to conduct their investigation and see, when they have ascertained the facts, quite what they conclude."
Last night No10 said Boris Johnson will publish a SECOND Sue Gray report on Downing Street parties after he faced outrage over a half-baked "update”.
It is a U-turn after Downing Street spent hours refusing to guarantee it would publish a second report at a later date.
Sue Gray warned she has “extensive substantive factual information” on No10 parties after interviewing more than 70 people and checking e-mails, WhatsApps, texts, photographs, official records and entry and exit logs.
Police revealed Ms Gray had gathered, and given to them, "well over 500 pieces of paper, about a ream and a half, and over 300 photographs".
But the report was stripped of almost all details after the Met Police asked Ms Gray to make only "minimal reference" to the 12 gatherings it was probing.
It's understood that even in her second report, Sue Gray would be unlikely to publish a full catalogue of e-mails, texts and photos.
This is because the names of staff tend to be kept anonymous in such reports - but also because her remit was only to establish a "general understanding" of the gatherings.
"Anything she gives the Prime Minister he will publish, but ultimately that's a question for Sue Gray and the timing will depend on the police investigation," Mr Raab told LBC Radio.
"I understand that there are the individual claims of breaches, of allegations, which must go to the police to investigate.
"It's not clear to me that there is anything more, other than any conclusions that she will draw once that investigation is concluded, that will come forward."
