The long-awaited report into the Downing Street partygate must be made public in full as soon as the Prime Minister receives it, Nicola Sturgeon has demanded.
There has been fervent speculation over when the report – being compiled by senior civil servant Sue Gray – will be published, when it will be made public and if parts will be removed.
Boris Johnson said today he would “of course” publish the report in full - but the SNP leader warned the longer it took for the investigation to be made public, the more suspicions would swirl about potential changes being made by Downing Street.
The First Minister said: “The report should be published immediately after Boris Johnson receives it and published in full.
“The longer he was to sit on it, the more suspicion people would have about what he might be doing to it.”
But the First Minister said the report will not change the fact Mr Johnson “misled parliament”.
“Everybody is really keen to see what Sue Gray concludes, obviously,” she said as she entered the Holyrood chamber ahead of First Minister’s Questions.
“I think it’s really hard to imagine anything she could say that would change what we already know from what’s on the record, and that’s that Boris Johnson misled parliament, and I think that’s the severity of the position he’s in.”
It comes as Keir Starmer also demanded the Sue Gray report is published "in full and as soon as possible".
The Labour leader said: “And I mean in full – not redacted, not edited, not a summary, not parts left out. In full.
"After what everybody in the country’s been through in the last year or two with the pandemic, huge sacrifices have been made, the least that they’re entitled to is the truth about what the Prime Minister was up to.”
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