SUE GRAY REPORT LIVE: Partygate dossier arrives at Downing Street as Boris Johnson and the Tories brace for backlash after more photos from No10 lockdown parties are set to be published TODAY

• Partygate report on Downing Street lockdown parties is expected today 
• Boris Johnson and his allies are bracing for a massive political backlash 
• *** Follow MailOnline’s coverage of the Partygate drama HERE ***

This is MailOnline’s live blog for the Sue Gray partygate report on lockdown parties at Boris Johnson’s Downing Street: 

Host commentator

Sue Gray’s report on lockdown-busting parties in No10 and Whitehall is 38-40 pages long.

The dossier is now being read by Boris Johnson. The PM will then give a statement at around 12.30pm.

Sue Gray is expected to be highly critical of the culture in No 10 which led to the repeated violations of Covid restrictions over the course of 2020 and 2021.

The report is also expected to criticise Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, but he has made clear he will not be resigning and the Prime Minister will not sack him.

Ms Gray’s report will give the clearest picture so far of events which led to widespread public anger, including the names of some of those who attended gatherings.

Officials impacted by the inquiry, including those to be named, were written to ahead of its publication, allowing them to have a chance to respond before it was finalised.

Sue Gray has provided her final report on lockdown-busting parties in No 10 and Whitehall to Boris Johnson, the Cabinet Office has confirmed. 

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: ‘We can confirm that Sue Gray has provided her final report to the Prime Minister.’

Advisers and civil servants drank alcohol and danced in No10’s basement and gardens to mark the departure of Boris Johnson’s press chief James Slack and one of the Prime Minister’s personal photographers. 

Witnesses claimed 30 people attended the two gatherings, which were held in different parts of the Downing Street complex before combining in the garden, on the night before Prince Philip’s funeral. 

A second, formal leaving event is held for Mr Slack inside No 10. More than a dozen allegedly attended.

Downing Street staffers allegedly hold their own festive party, with the PM not in attendance. Group size is also given as 40 to 50.

Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, charged with probing Partygate, hosted a party after sending an email out to around 15 people in his Private Office titled ‘Christmas Quiz’.

Pictures obtained by the Sunday Mirror show Mr Johnson on a TV screen flanked by colleagues, one draped in tinsel and another wearing a Santa hat, in the No10 library.

A source claimed many staff were huddled by computers in their Downing Street offices, conferring on questions and drinking alcohol while the quiz was taking place. 

The Mirror said a message sent by No10’s head of HR on the night of the quiz advised that those who had stayed behind to take part ‘go out the back’ when they left.

The paper also unearthed the team names used that night, including ‘Professor Quiz Whitty’, ‘Rebels without a Claus’, and ‘Hands, Face, First Place’.

Read more of MailOnline’s coverage of the Partygate drama here.

Mr Johnson reportedly gives a speech at a packed leaving do for a ‘senior aide’. ’40 or 50 people’ were present. 

The aide was named as one newspaper as Cleo Watson, Dominic Cummings’ protégé.

The PM allegedly made a leaving speech for his director of communications Lee Cain with a number of people gathered. 

The party is believed to have carried on upstairs that evening after Dominic Cummings unceremoniously walked out of Downing Street carrying a cardboard box.

It is said the below photo shows this party. 

Downing Street has admitted staff ‘gathered briefly’ in the Cabinet Room in what was reportedly a surprise get-together for Mr Johnson organised by his now wife Carrie. Rishi Sunak has admitted he ‘popped in’ on his way to a meeting elsewhere in Downing Street.

Lulu Lytle, the interior designer behind lavish renovations of the Downing Street flat, briefly attended while undertaking work there.

It was after this gathering that Tory MP Conor Burns claimed Mr Johnson had been ‘ambushed by a cake’.

No 10 denied a report that, later the same evening, family and friends were hosted upstairs to celebrate the occasion.

A bombshell email from Mr Johnson’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, invited more than 100 staff to No10’s lavish gardens on May 20 to ‘make the most of the lovely weather’. 

He told guests to bring their own alcohol.

A leaked photo showed Boris and Carrie Johnson with 17 senior Downing Street staff, sitting around cheese and wine.

This took place during the first Covid lockdown at a time when only two people from different households could mix outdoors, socially distanced.

Scotland Yard did not investigate this party.

Partygate is the name given to the scandal that lockdown-busting parties were held in government during the Covid pandemic.

When the British public was ordered to obey strict Covid restrictions on social gatherings, civil servants, Downing Street staff and even the Prime Minister met in secret for boozy parties at several locations in No10 and Whitehall on repeated occasion. 

Follow MailOnline’s blog for a rundown of the key parties.

After nearly six months of damaging revelations, senior civil servant Sue Gray delivering her final report on partygate today.

The document – including photos – is expected to be published by Downing Street shortly before PMQs at noon.

After facing off with Keir Starmer at the weekly session, Boris Johnson will then make a statement to MPs on the report – in which he is planning to issue a fresh apology.

The premier is then planning to hold a press conference in the afternoon, potentially around 3.30pm.

To round off his ‘masochism strategy’ Mr Johnson is due to run the gauntlet of angry Tory MPs at a behind-closed-doors meeting of the 1922 Committee at 5pm.

Read more of MailOnline’s coverage of the political scandal here.

Britain’s most senior civil servant Simon Case will not be resigning and will not be sacked by Boris Johnson over partygate.

It follows reports that the Cabinet Secretary will come under significant pressure to resign this week amid expectations that the Sue Gray report will find he bears ‘ultimate responsibility’ for the scandal.

Mr Case is bracing for a ‘brutal’ report which will levy ‘stinging criticism’ towards his leadership and conduct during his time in Downing Street.

Good morning, and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage of the Partygate report into lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street.

Boris Johnson is bracing for a hurricane political backlash as Sue Gray’s dossier is sent to No10 today.

Follow our live blog for all the latest news and updates on today’s developments – you won’t want to miss it. 

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