Boris Johnson: Pressure mounts on PM to publish delayed Downing Street parties report
Boris Johnson has pledged to publish in full an official report into the various parties and other gatherings his Downing Street team, and sometimes the prime minister himself, attended in alleged breach of lockdown rules.
Johnson has defiantly rejected calls to resign. But his fate could depend on the outcome of civil servant Sue Gray's inquiry into the garden parties, farewell drinks, Christmas fun and birthday bashes that reportedly went on while a large majority of the population obeyed instructions to forgo such events.
Earlier this week the eagerly-awaited publication of her report was thought to be imminent, but the timing is still unknown. With many MPs heading back to their constituencies for the weekend, it may not come until next week.
One theory is that the report may be undergoing legal checks to make sure that it does not compromise the police inquiry into events at Downing Street that Scotland Yard announced earlier this week. Government officials were still reportedly pouring over final drafts on Thursday night.
"We haven't received it yet," a spokesperson for Johnson said of the Gray report earlier in the day while the prime minister, on a visit to Wales, insisted he was "absolutely not" seeking to postpone its release.
Asked to confirm that the government would publish it in full, the prime minister replied "of course".
"Can the Prime Minister confirm that he will publish the full Sue Gray report as he receives it?" opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer asked Johnson in parliament on Wednesday, referring to a previous pledge he had made to place a copy in the House of Commons library.
"When I receive it, of course I will do exactly what I said," the prime minister replied, without elaborating.
He has claimed he
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