Politics
downing street

Sue Gray’s report into Downing Street parties to be published today – here’s the top reactions

Sue Gray’s report into Downing Street parties to be published today – here’s the top reactions
Boris Johnson dodges questions on parties ahead of Sue Gray report release
Sky News

Yes, we know we’ve been here before.

We were all hoping that senior civil servant Sue Gray would publish her report into Downing Street parties held during lockdown last week, but then the Metropolitan Police threw a spanner – or perhaps, a baton – into the works by announcing it would conduct its own investigation into the parties.

Ms Grey’s report is understood to finally be published later today and will be stripped of references to parties – including one held in December 2020 – so as not to prejudice the Met’s inquiry.

According to the Daily Mirror’s Pippa Crerar, Boris Johnson is expected to give a statement to MPs in the Commons later, where he will “apologise repeatedly”.

The report has the potential to make things difficult for the prime minister, who faces continued pressure to resign over the scandal which revealed he had more than 30 people at a birthday party in Downing Street in June last year.

Or, to put it another way, Mr Johnson was simply “ambushed with a cake”.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Fellow Tory MPs have called for him to go, with an unknown number of them writing to the chair of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, asking for a vote of no confidence in his leadership.

Since it was announced that Ms Gray would be investigating the numerous parties, with more incidents emerging every other week, the civil servant has become a source for memes across social media.

News that her report might, at last, come out today has only reignited the jokes and commentary on Twitter:














Amid reports of the publication date being today, The Daily Telegraph's Christopher Hope shared a comment from a Cabinet Office spokesman who said: "We can confirm that Sue Gray has provided an update on her investigations to the Prime Minister."

Which is about as transparent as Ms Gray's heavily redacted report is going to be.

We would suggest that she gets a strong drink once the report is published, as she’ll certainly need it, but given what she’s been investigating, that doesn’t seem appropriate to us.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

lockdownBoris Johnsondowning streetbreaking
The Conversation (0)