Boris Johnson will travel to eastern Europe and also telephone Vladimir Putin in the coming week to urge the Russian President to “avoid bloodshed” in Ukraine even as the British Prime Minister prepares to deal with the domestic fallout from Sue Gray’s report into “Partygate”.
Foreign secretary Liz Truss — a contender for Boris’s job if he is forced to resign — is supposed to go to Moscow for talks.
It is now being suggested that the senior civil servant will not wait for Scotland Yard to finish its investigations into alleged breaches of Covid restrictions at 10 Downing Street, but send a redacted version of her report to the Prime Minister. He has undertaken to publish whatever is sent to him.
According to the BBC, Gray “is set to hand her report to Downing Street shortly —though no exact date has been given”.
On Saturday, the Mail reported: “Boris Johnson may see Sue Gray report today or tomorrow but it won’t be revealed to voters until next week.”
Her much anticipated report may determine Boris’s future.
For the Prime Minister, one of the complications might be that his 33-year-old wife, Carrie, is said to have arranged for a cake to be delivered to his office to mark his 56th birthday — and that a number of people came to toast his health, breaking the “two only” rule.
Although a trivial affair, this has now become part of “Partygate”. Boris’s backers say he was “ambushed by a cake”.
The author Tom Bower, who has written an unflattering biography, Boris Johnson: The Gambler, launched an astonishing attack on Carrie on LBC talk radio, calling her a “floosy” who had destabilised the Prime Minister.
Boris would not be in the trouble that he is in had he remained married to Marina Wheeler, his half-Sikh wife of 25 years and mother of their four children, said Bower.
On Friday, Scotland Yard revealed it had asked the cabinet office to ensure “minimal reference” was made in Gray’s report to events police officers were investigating, leading to accusations of an “establishment cover up”.
For example, the page one headline in Saturday’s Financial Times read: “Met accused of ‘stitch-up’ over Gray’s delayed partygate report.” Scotland Yard has issued a new statement saying it was not seeking to delay Gray’s report.
Commander Catherine Roper, who leads the Scotland Yard’s Central Specialist Crime Command, said: “My officers will now examine this material in detail to establish whether individuals attending the events in question may have breached the regulations. They will do so without fear or favour following our normal processes.
“In order to protect the integrity of the police investigation, as is appropriate in any case, and to be as fair as possible to those who are subject to it, the Met has asked for minimal reference to be made in the Cabinet Office report to the relevant events.
“This will only be necessary until these matters are concluded, and is to give detectives the most reliable picture of what happened at these events. We intend to complete our investigations promptly, fairly and proportionately.
“We have not delayed this report and the timing of its release is a matter for the Cabinet Office inquiry team.
“The offences under investigation, where proven, would normally result in the issuing of a fixed penalty notice; accordingly our investigative actions will be proportionate to the nature of these offences.
“Individuals who are identified as having potentially breached these regulations will normally be contacted in writing, and invited to explain their actions including whether they feel they had a reasonable excuse.
“Following this process, and where there is sufficient evidence that individuals have breached the regulations without reasonable excuse, officers will decide if enforcement action is appropriate. If the decision is to take enforcement action then a report will be sent to the ACRO Criminal Records Office which will issue the fixed penalty notice. Recipients can pay the fixed penalty and the matter will be considered closed.”
