Sue Gray’s final report into Downing Street parties has been sent to No 10, and is expected to include damning descriptions and several photographs of gatherings that broke lockdown laws.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “We can confirm that Sue Gray has provided her final report to the prime minister.” It is understood that the report is about 40 pages long.
The senior civil servant’s verdict on the culture that developed in No 10 and Whitehall during the pandemic is keenly awaited in Westminster, where Boris Johnson will respond to the findings later on Wednesday.
No 10 insiders are being given time to read printed copies of the report, before it is published at approximately 11am. Johnson will give a statement to MPs after prime minister’s questions, then speak at a press conference and later address Tory MPs at the 1922 Committee meeting of backbenchers.
The report is expected to set out in detail each event investigated by Gray – and to name a string of senior government figures involved in the gatherings. The cabinet secretary, Simon Case, the most senior civil servant in Downing Street, was not fined but sources have said his leadership is expected to be criticised.
Case is reported to have told colleagues he does not intend to resign. Gray’s interim report, which was heavily curtailed because of the Metropolitan police investigation, already lamented what she called “failures of leadership and judgment” in Downing Street – without pointing the finger at specific individuals.
The Met police issued 126 fixed-penalty notices relating to gatherings in Downing Street and Whitehall, including for Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak over a birthday party held for the prime minister while curbs on indoor gatherings were in place.
Gray’s report will not mark the end of the Partygate story for the prime minister: he is set to face an inquiry from the House of Commons privileges committee about whether he misled MPs, when he repeatedly told MPs lockdown guidance was followed in Downing Street.
Earlier on Wednesday the cabinet minister George Eustice conceded there was a “blurring of the boundary” in Downing Street between work and socialising.
Many Conservative MPs have repeatedly said they were awaiting Gray’s final report before deciding whether Johnson should face a vote of no confidence.
In what appeared to be a hint of how Johnson is likely to explain himself, Eustice, the environment secretary, said: “There was a blurring of the boundary, if you like, between events that were happening at the end of a working day in a working environment, a blurring of that into what became, clearly in some cases, parties.”
