Boris Johnson news – live: Nusrat Ghani sacking probe if complaint made, says Raab amid PM flat party reports

As The Sunday Times’ Caroline Wheeler reports in this lengthy thread:

On that note, former cabinet minister Gavin Williamson has been accused of threatening to withdraw funding for a school the constituency of a recently defected Tory MP, who was considering voting against the government.

Christian Wakeford, who joined the Labour Party earlier this week, first made the claim that he was “threatened that I would not get the school for Radcliffe if I do not vote in one particular way” on Thursday, writes our political correspondent Ashley Cowburn.

At the time, he did not reveal who was responsible, but speaking to The Sunday Times, the MP alleged Mr Williamson, who was then education secretary, had made the threat to cancel the school outside the Members’ Dining Room in parliament.

There’s more trouble for the government after an ex-Tory chief whip said it would be a criminal offence if government whips threatened to withdraw public funding from the constituencies of MPs who refused to toe the party line.

It comes after backbencher William Wragg said he would be meeting police this week to discuss his claims that MPs seeking to oust Boris Johnson were warned investment could be cut from their local areas.

Andrew Mitchell, the MP for Sutton Coldfield, said that if such allegations were true, it would be misconduct in public office.

“There is an absolute rule that you do not go outside the stockade and use the media or blackmail to do in a colleague,” he told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend.

“Using taxpayers’ money in a way to try and persuade a Member of Parliament not to vote in the way that they wish, that would be – if it were true, and I emphasise that is a quite a big ‘if’ – it would undoubtedly be misconduct in public office.

“It would be a criminal offence and it could result in a prison sentence.”

Officials working in No 10 claim they have held back information from Sue Gray’s investigation into the partygate scandal due to a “culture of fear” surrounding the probe.

Three sources told our economics editor Anna Isaac they have not divulged messages and pictures on their phones after a senior member of staff told them to remove anything that could fuel speculation in the wake of the first party revelations. Messages in a WhatsApp group were said to contain photographs of people drinking and dancing, as well as references to how hungover people were the next day.

The messages are from the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral, when there were two parties, one to mark the departure of a No 10 photographer and another to mark the departure of James Slack, Downing Street’s director of communications.

Read the full exclusive report:

The former Conservative MP who defected to Labour has accused Boris Johnson of having “poisoned the Tory Party from top to bottom” as he said the PM was “living on borrowed time”.

Christian Wakeford crossed the floor on Wednesday in protest at the PM’s leadership and the row over Downing Street parties.

He has also said he was threatened about the loss of a school in his constituency if he did not toe the line.

Writing in the Sunday Mirror, Wakeford said the investigation into No 10 by civil servant Sue Gray would show Downing Street was “hosting parties while the rest of us were obeying the rules”.

“The PM attended and then lied about it. He showed no respect for the Queen while she was in mourning for her husband,” Mr Wakeford wrote.

“His behaviour has been an insult not just to Her Majesty but to the whole nation. His lack of honesty and integrity has poisoned the once great party he leads.”

Mr Wakeford added he had “too much respect for the people who voted me into parliament to stay silent in the face of such intimidation”.

Let’s get an update on when we can expect to see Sue Gray’s report.

Boris Johnson’s fate now lies in the hands not of his MPs or the nation’s voters, but a little-known civil servant conducting an inquiry behind closed doors into Downing Street parties.

After he made his apology in the House of Commons for attending a drinks event in the No 10 garden during lockdown, the prime minister pleaded with MPs to suspend judgement on his actions until the release of Ms Gray’s report.

The tactic bought the PM time, but may prove a double-edged sword in raising expectations that he will comply with any recommendations the Whitehall mandarin makes. Asked whether he would resign if Gray found against him, Johnson himself told the Commons he would “respond as appropriate” to her findings.

So, when it is expected and what do critics think it will conclude? Our political editor Andrew Woodcock takes a closer look.

Last bit from Raab’s media round this morning, in which the deputy PM spoke of the “rallying support” currently being given to Boris Johnson.

“There is a rallying of support behind the prime minister,” he told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme. “You could feel it in the chamber.”

He continued: “I think the reason is the booster campaign has been so successful, we are coming out of the lockdown measures, we are opening up the economy. These are all because of the calls the prime minister has made.”

Mr Raab refused to be drawn on whether Sue Gray’s findings about alleged lockdown-breaching parties would be published in full, although he insisted there would be “full transparency”.

“The process for it will be for the prime minister to decide,” he added.