Sue Gray’s report into lockdown-busting Downing Street parties will expose “premeditation” by civil servants arranging bashes, it was claimed today.
Claims that staff knew they were breaking the law are set to emerge, according to the Sunday Times.
The latest batch of Metropolitan Police Partygate questionnaires has been sent to suspects, relating to the leaving party of Boris Johnson ’s director of communications, Lee Cain.
The probe has already seen Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and dozens of staff fined £50 each for attending illegal bashes when coronavirus restrictions were in force.
No10 is braced for Mr Johnson to be slapped with more fixed penalty notices.
Insiders are said to believe the birthday party bash he has been sanctioned for is the least bad of the half dozen gatherings he attended which Met Police detectives are probing.
Only when all police investigations have finished will Ms Gray’s report be published.
A senior official familiar with its contents said the findings would be “difficult for everyone”, according to The Sunday Times.
“The most shocking thing Sue’s report has uncovered is a series of emails which expose the extent to which the parties were premeditated and the rules were being willfully broken,” an official told the paper.
“She is also concerned by the lack of contrition shown by those who have been found to have broken the rules.”
Mr Johnson is expected to face fresh calls to quit following Thursday’s local elections, where the Tories are tipped to lose hundreds of seats.
Voters will cast ballots with the Partygate scandal rumbling along in the background.
But Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng insisted the PM’s position was safe - no matter how bad the results are.
“I don’t think his leadership is at threat at all, what he’s delivered is really a remarkable series of successes,” he told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday.
“I think Brexit, he delivered on that, the fact he was very widely appreciated in Ukraine, he’s been widely hailed as someone who has led the overseas effort to help Ukraine and also look at the vaccine rollout, that was a great bit of success.”
Pressed whether no matter what happens in the polls Mr Johnson is safe, he replied: “Absolutely”.
However, the senior Tory who Mr Johnson beat to the party leadership in July 2019 is said to be preparing another tilt for the crown if the PM’s premiership becomes less secure.
Ex-Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who was runner-up in the last Conservative leadership contest, is ready to brand himself a “safe pair of hands”.
Mr Kwarteng said: “Jeremy is a very capable colleague, he’s a good friend.
“I don’t know what he’s up to but as far as I’m concerned Boris Johnson is the right man by far to lead us into the next election.”
Meanwhile, Labour leader Keir Starmer launched a furious fightback against ongoing claims he may have broken rules by sipping a beer in Durham last April at what he insists was a work event.
He told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “We were in the office, we were working, we paused for something to eat.
“There was no party, no rules were broken, and that is the long and the short of it.
“Durham Police looked at it and decided there was absolutely nothing wrong.
“We’ve got an election on Thursday and there’s just Tory MPs trying to throw mud around because they’ve got nothing to say on the central issue, which is the cost of living.”
