Redacting report into partygate would amount to ‘cover up’, claims Commons’ standards chair

• Chris Bryant, chair of the Commons’ standards committee, has said Sue Gray’s report must be published “in full”.
• Gray’s report is expected to be released later this week – but only the “findings” will be made public.
• The hotly-anticipated report could result in Boris Johnson fighting to save his premiership.

The report into claims of lockdown-breaching parties held in Downing Street must be published in full, the chair of the House of Commons’s standards committee has said.

Sue Gray’s report into so-called partygate is expected to be released later this week, however only the “findings” will be made public, according to the original terms of reference, which were set out when it was to be led by Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary. 

A former official with a close understanding of investigations led by the Cabinet Office said the terms of reference would have been agreed with Boris Johnson, Insider reported in December.

But, amid growing suspicion that this could result in a truncated version being made public, Chris Bryant tweeted on Monday morning that “the Sue Gray report must be published in full. Anything less is a cover up.”

—Chris Bryant (@RhonddaBryant) January 24, 2022

The intervention from Bryant, who rarely makes personal proclamations on standards issues, comes amid reports that Met Police officers have been interviewed by Gray, furthering suspicions that the report will contain explosive details of what took place.

Police officers who guard Downing Street have been interviewed by Gray, the Telegraph reported.

One anonymous source told the Telegraph “Put it this way, if Boris Johnson is still Prime Minister by the end of the week, I’d be very surprised.”

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner MP has also called for the report to be published in full along with all the evidence uncovered by the inquiry.

“Boris Johnson cannot be allowed to cover-up or obscure any of the truth when he has insisted on a hugely protracted internal probe to tell him which parties he attended and what happened in his own home. The Sue Gray report must be published in its entirety with all accompanying evidence,” she said.

On Monday Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, told BBC Radio 4: “The findings will be made public and the Prime Minister will submit himself to Parliament and make a statement and be scrutinised on those findings.”

The Cabinet Office has refused to say if a list of interviewees will be published, if interviews have been recorded, and if any such recorded interviews will be published, openDemocracy reported.

In 2017, a far less politically significant investigation by the Cabinet Office into an allegation of a breach of the Ministerial Code by Damian Green saw the publication of a summary of conclusions.

In this instance, the work of Cabinet Office officials was submitted to the then-Cabinet Secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, who summarised their findings and conclusions for submission to the then-Prime Minister, Theresa May.

Given Case’s recusal from the investigation, Gray is believed to be submitting her report directly to Johnson.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman has previously told reporters that it will be for Gray and the Cabinet Office to publish the report following the terms of reference.

But Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab told the BBC on Sunday that the process of publication “will be for the Prime Minister to decide”.