‘She has been horribly isolated’: friends say Sue Gray was deliberately ostracised while investigating Partygate

Boris Johnson and staff pictured with wine and cheese in 10 Downing Street’s garden in May 2020. Photograph: The Guardian

For the past five months, senior civil servant Sue Gray has been holed up in a nondescript office at No 70 Whitehall, along with a handful of young officials.

Despite the size of her task investigating Partygate she has, according to colleagues and friends, been given very little assistance by senior figures in the civil service, including cabinet secretary Simon Case and members of the prime minister’s political operation at No 10.