Whitehall mandarin Sue Gray has said she is unable to present a “meaningful report” into allegations of rule-breaking parties in No 10 due to the ongoing Metropolitan Police investigation.
Publishing an “update” of her report, Ms Gray insisted she was “extremely limited” over the information she could reveal after day of wrangling in the wake of Cressida Dick’s decision to launch a police probe.
Scotland Yard last week asked Ms Gray to make only “minimal reference” to gatherings being investigated by its officers.
However, she did reveal the 12 events being investigated by the police, including the “bring your own booze” gathering on 20 May, 2020 and the allegation of gathering in the prime minister’s residence on 13 November, 2020.
And while heavily censored, the senior civil servant also blasted the “failures of leadership and judgement” in No 10 and the Cabinet Office.
She stressed that some events “represent a serious failure to observe not just the high standards expected of those working at the heart of government but also of the standards expected of the entire British population at the time”.
“There were failures of leadership and judgment by different parts of No 10 and the Cabinet Office at different times,” she said.
“A number of these gatherings should not have been allowed to take place or to develop in the way that they did.
“There is significant learning to be drawn from these events which must be addressed immediately across government. This does not need to wait for the police investigations to be concluded. “
But she added: “As a result of the Metropolitan Police’s investigations, and so as not to prejudice the police investigative process, they have told me that it would only be appropriate to make minimal reference to the gatherings on the dates they are investigating.
“Unfortunately, this necessarily means that I am extremely limited in what I can say about those events and it is not possible at present to provide a meaningful report setting out and analysing the extensive factual information I have been able to gather”.
Her remarks were published in a 12-page “update” of the investigation into alleged gatherings on government premises during Covid restrictions, as Boris Johnson prepared to face MPs in the Commons.
Downing Street has so far refused to commit to publishing a fuller version of Ms Gray’s findings once the police investigation has concluded.
