Boris Johnson 'interviewed by Sue Gray' as questioning over partygate continues
Boris Johnson has been interviewed by Sue Gray as part of her investigation into alleged lockdown breaches inside Downing Street, according to reports.
The Prime Minister was said to have been asked to ‘share what he knows’ with the senior civil servant about parties held in No 10 while the rest of the country was in lockdown.
Sources told The Telegraph that the highly anticipated report could be due out as early as this week despite being delayed by further revelations about leaving dos held the day before Prince Philip’s funeral coming to light last week.
Mr Johnson is already planning his response to the report and may sack members of his top team and announce a raft of new policies in an attempt to sure up his leadership.
The PM was seen out running with his dog Dilyn on Monday morning, as he emerged from Downing Street having had to cancel planned visits last week after a member of his family caught Covid.
But the so-called ‘Operation Save Big Dog’ has already been hit by yet more revelations about Government parties.
The Mirror said Mr Johnson attended a leaving do before Christmas 2020 during which he gave a speech to mark the departure of his defence adviser Captain Steve Higham.
No 10 did not respond to request for comment and the Ministry of Defence declined.
Before the latest story emerged, Conservative Party Chairman Oliver Dowden had said the full extent of alleged rule-breaking was already known about ‘to his knowledge’.
Exasperated backbench Tory MPs are deciding whether to submit letters of no confidence in Mr Johnson and trigger a leadership contest.
Six Conservative MPs have so far publicly called for the PM to go but as many as 35 may have submitted letters privately, just 19 short of the 54 required.
In a sign of the anger many are facing from their electorate, the office of Robert Largan, the Tory MP for High Peak, has been graffitied repeatedly with the words ‘Lies’.
Many are waiting for the publication of the report before deciding what to do, while testing the water in their constituencies to see if the fury many voters feel is ‘terminal’ for the PM.
West Dorset MP Chris Loder, who was elected in 2019, told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour: ‘I’m not going to call for anyone’s resignation until I’ve seen the facts, but then real action is required, and then we shall go from there.’
Andrew Bowie, Conservative MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, said he would wait to read the conclusions of the investigation but admitted there was ‘a lot of ill-feeling out there and discomfort’ on the Tory benches.
The former party vice-chairman said he thought Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg should apologise to Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross after he branded him ‘lightweight’ following his call for the Prime Minister to stand down.
Former justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland – who was sacked from the Cabinet by the Prime Minister in September – told Times Radio that it would be ‘a bridge too far’ for the PM if it emerged in Ms Gray’s report that ‘people at the top of Government’ were involved in ‘organising and planning and absolutely openly disregarding the rules’.
Yesterday, The Sunday Times columnist Dominic Lawson alleged the PM had lied over his claims that he thought the May 20 BYOB event – which he has admitted attending – was a ‘work event’.
Mr Lawson claimed that two people told the PM that it should be cancelled because it was a party.
A No 10 spokeswoman said: ‘It is untrue that the Prime Minister was warned about the event in advance.’
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