The wait for Sue Gray’s Partygate findings may continue into next week with Boris Johnson, who has departed London for a visit to North Wales, yet to have been handed the full report.
With the prime minister hundreds of miles from parliament, all signs pointed to a further delay to the publication of the Cabinet Office investigation.
Officials in Westminster are now said to be believe the document may not become public until next week, due to a process of “legal scrubbing” currently taking place. This ensures that the final report does not unfairly identify junior staff or cut across the separate investigation by Metropolitan Police.
It comes as Boris Johnson dismissed new evidence that he ordered the controversial evacuation of dogs and cats from Afghanistan as “total rhubarb”.
Internal emails released to the public this week show officials saying the prime minister has “authorised” resources be directed to getting the animals out of the country – a claim he previously denied.
Brexit checks at Dover mean lorry queues ‘only going to get longer’, says union
Brexit controls are behind the huge lorry queues leading up to Dover and delays are “going to get longer”, a union representing drivers has said.
Unite said the full customs controls brought in after Brexit is causing significant hold-ups at the port – with each driver taking 10 to 20 minutes to clear checks.
Adrian Jones, Unite’s national officer for road transport, told The Independent: “The queues and the delays are only going to get longer as both tourism the commercial trade pick up in the weeks ahead.”
Our political correspondent, Adam Forrest, has the full report below:
Sue Gray report must be released ‘in full as soon as Boris Johnson receives it,’ Nicola Sturgeon says
The Sue Gray report into lockdown Covid parties must be published “in full” and as soon as Boris Johnson receives it, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
Nicola Sturgeon told ITV Border on Thursday: “The report should be published immediately after Boris Johnson receives it and published in full.
“The longer he was to sit on it the more suspicion people would have about what he might be doing to it.”
However she also said that regardless of the report by Sue Gray, the prime minister “misled parliament”.
“But I think it’s really hard to imagine anything she could say that would change what we already know from what’s on the record and that’s that Boris Johnson misled parliament and I think that’s the severity of the position he’s in.”
Watch: Boris Johnson says claim he intervened in Afghan animal airlift is ‘total rhubarb’
‘Total rhubarb’: Boris Johnson repeats denial that he ordered Afghan animal airlift
As mentioned in our previous post, Boris Johnson has dismissed new evidence that he ordered the controversial evacuation of dogs and cats from Afghanistan as “total rhubarb”.
Internal emails released to the public this week show officials saying the prime minister has “authorised” resources be directed to getting the animals out of the country.
The email contradicted Mr Johnson’s previous claims he had ordered the evacuation. He had branded the claims “complete nonsense” and said it would have been wrong for him to have intervened.
Our policy correspondent, Jon Stone, has the full story below:
Gray report must be published ‘in full’, senior Tory warns PM
Senior Conservative MP Mark Harper has warned Boris Johnson that the Sue Gray report must be published in full.
Writing on Twitter in response to a Sky News interview with a man who lost his mother, father and sister to Covid-19, Mr Harper said: “Heartbreaking and so difficult to watch. This happened to families up and down our country.
“That’s why Sue Gray’s report matters. The report must be published in full. Any attempt to conceal or suppress crucial details would be wrong.”
Cabinet ministers insist PM wouldn’t have to resign if interviewed by police
Cabinet ministers have insisted Boris Johnson will not have to resign if he’s interviewed under caution by police as part of a Met investigation into alleged rule-breaking in No 10.
As part of the probe, The Times reported that the prime minister faced the prospect of being interviewed by Scotland Yard, either under caution when individuals are read their rights by officers, or as a witness.
Here is the story:
Starmer calls for Gray report ‘to be published in full and as soon as possible’
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said the Sue Gray report “needs to be published in full and as soon as possible”.
During a visit to Grimsby, he told the PA news agency: “And I mean in full – not redacted, not edited, not a summary, not parts left out. In full.
“After what everybody in the country’s been through in the last year or two with the pandemic, huge sacrifices have been made, the least that they’re entitled to is the truth about what the prime minister was up to.”
Sir Keir said of Ms Gray’s findings: “The most important thing is that we see the full report as it was delivered to the prime minister so that everybody can see for themselves her (Sue Gray’s) understanding, her establishment of the facts of what actually happened.”
PM blames shortage of workers on rising cost of living
The prime minister has also been commenting on the cost of living crisis.
Boris Johnson suggested the shortage of workers in key roles was pushing up the cost of living, without mentioning the impact of Brexit, which has cut off European jobseekers from the UK.
He said: “We’re coming out of Covid now, and it’s a fantastic thing, but everybody can see the pressures on our economy, the shortage of skilled workers, particularly in hospitality, in retail, in road haulage.
“That’s helping to push up prices, that’s affecting the cost of living, it’s affecting inflation.
“Now, what we can do, we’ve got 1.25 million job vacancies in this country, 1.25 million jobs, that aren’t being done. But we’ve also got 1.8 million people who are on welfare. Now, many of them can be helped rapidly into work. That’s why we’re launching the Way to Work scheme today, to help them faster into the jobs that need doing across the UK,
“That’s good for the economy, it’s good for business, it helps to hold down inflation and also it’s fantastic for the individuals themselves because the worst thing possible when you’re unemployed is to wait for too long.”
He added: “The difficulty is actually this economy is going so well post-Covid that we’re short of hundreds of thousands of pairs of hands to do vital jobs. So the point of Way to Work is to shorten the period when people are off work, shorten the period when people are feeling that sense of, you know, low self-esteem, maybe, because they haven’t got a job, get them into work and help to get the economy moving.”
Johnson defends planned NI rise
Also speaking during his North Wales visit, Boris Johnson defended the planned rise in National Insurance.
He said: “Let me just tell you about that and why it’s so important that we raise the funding to cope with the Covid backlogs, the damage that Covid has done to… particularly to our NHS, and every penny of this goes to tackling our NHS backlogs and fixing social care.
“Every penny will go towards fixing the Covid backlogs and also social care, the two things are connected. Don’t forget, if you talk… if you go around hospitals, as I have done a lot in the last 18 months – more – two years, so much of the problem is caused and aggravated, made worse, by the numbers of people that are waiting in hospital that can be discharged, but they can’t be let out of hospital because we can’t find the right package of social care, and it does need to be sorted out.”
Asked if the rise would go ahead, he said it was “absolutely vital”, and he added: “I think people do understand. Look, I don’t think there’s a family in this country that hasn’t been affected by the Covid backlogs in one way or the other. I bet you know somebody who’s had their treatment or scan delayed because of what we went through over the last 18 months.
“We had to spend over £400 billion keeping the British economy going during the lockdowns, we’ve got now to move forward, we’ve got to fix the Covid backlogs, we’ve got to sort out social care. I think that’s the right thing to do.”
Afghan evacuation claims ‘total rhubarb’, says PM
Boris Johnson has described claims he authorised evacuating animals out of Kabul over humans as “total rhubarb”.
Asked whether he was involved in the decision during a visit to North Wales, the PM said: “No, that is… this whole thing is total rhubarb.
“I was very proud of what our armed services did with Op Pitting and it was an amazing thing to to move 15,000 people out of Kabul in the way that we did.
“I thought it was also additionally very good that we were able to help those vets who came out as well.
“But I can tell you that the military always prioritised human beings and that was quite right.
“I think we should be incredibly proud of Op Pitting and what it achieved.”
