Met Police has said they have asked Sue Gray to remove certain details of parties they are investigating in her report into alleged parties across Whitehall throughout lockdown.
The report on which Boris Johnson’s future may depend was expected to be delivered this week.
Metropolitan Police chief Dame Cressida Dick confirmed the force was investigating allegations of coronavirus rule breaches in Downing Street and Whitehall last week.
The police investigation sparked rumours publication of the report could be delayed however Met Police denied this.
However Downing Street are yet to receive a copy of the report, according to ministers inside NO.10.
Technology minister Chris Philip told Sky News: “I spoke to someone in Downing Street about half an hour ago, and they certainly didn’t indicate that it had been received.
“So, I don’t know a lot more than you do but I’ve certainly got no information as of right now that it has been received.”
The Metropolitan Police insisted officers had not asked for senior civil servant Sue Gray’s report to be delayed or placed any further restrictions on other events.
But the force said it remained in contact with the Cabinet Office team to “avoid any prejudice to our investigation”.
Met Police issue statement over Sue Gray report
Scotland Yard has confirmed it asked “for minimal reference” to be made in the Sue Gray report to alleged incidents on Downing Street the force is currently investigating.
In a statement, it said: “For the events the Met is investigating, we asked for minimal reference to be made in the Cabinet Office report.
“The Met did not ask for any limitations on other events in the report, or for the report to be delayed, but we have had ongoing contact with the Cabinet Office, including on the content of the report, to avoid any prejudice to our investigation.”
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here