Politics LIVE: Sue Gray report to be stripped of details of Downing Street parties
Boris Johnson faced Sir Keir Starmer and other members of the Opposition in PMQs while the Gray inquiry nears.
Scotland Yard has confirmed it asked “for minimal reference” to be made in the Sue Gray report to alleged incidents on Downing Street the force is currently investigating.
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Hide AdIn a statement, it said: “For the events the Met is investigating, we asked for minimal reference to be made in the Cabinet Office report.
“The Met did not ask for any limitations on other events in the report, or for the report to be delayed, but we have had ongoing contact with the Cabinet Office, including on the content of the report, to avoid any prejudice to our investigation.”
Police launched their own probe into multiple events in No 10 after being passed information from the Gray inquiry.
We’ll have live updates in our blog.
Politics LIVE: Downing Street braced for Sue Gray report as Boris Johnson faces further questions
Ministerial officials said that the Prime Minister “authorised” for a charity and its animals to be evacuated from Afghanistan despite Boris Johnson calling suggestions he intervened “complete nonsense”.
Rishi Sunak has denied “ignoring” or “writing off” billions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash lost to fraudsters from Covid-19 support schemes.
The Chancellor acknowledged “criminals have sought to exploit our support schemes”, but added: “We’re going to do everything we can to get that money back and go after those who took advantage of the pandemic.”
Treasury minister Lord Agnew of Oulton quit the Government at the despatch box over the “schoolboy” handling of fraudulent Covid business loans.
Parliament has heard the Treasury expects to write off about £4.3 billion of Covid loans, with money having gone to “fraudsters”. The Treasury has since disputed this figure.
Mr Sunak, writing on Twitter, said: “A lot of people are concerned about fraud in our Covid support measures and they’re absolutely right to be.
“No, I’m not ignoring it, and I’m definitely not ‘writing it off’.”
We are still awaiting the Sue Gray report.
The report is expected to be handed to No 10 on Wednesday, although it had not been submitted by the time Mr Johnson stood up to face MPs.
A senior official was heard saying Boris Johnson had issued the call for evacuation of Nowzad staff, whistleblower Raphael Marshall wrote in evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Mr Marshall wrote: “On Wednesday 25 August, I heard the senior official (‘Crisis Silver’) responsible for Afghan Special Cases say that they had just received an instruction from the Prime Minister to ‘call-forward’ Nowzad’s staff to Kabul Airport for evacuation.
“I then heard Silver instruct team members to send the names and passport details of Nowzad’s staff to the Home Office for security-checks.
“A colleague said ‘we are doing the dogs’ or ‘we are doing the dog people’. A colleague said that the Prime Minister had issued this instruction in a COBR meeting. It is possible the high-level meeting referred to was in-fact technically a National Security Council meeting.”
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said talks are ongoing with Downing Street and Jacob Rees-Mogg in a bid to give MPs “time to digest” Sue Gray’s report on party allegations.
Conservative MP Peter Bone (Wellingborough), raising a point of order, asked for assurances that a statement on the report will be given to the Commons on Friday if it is released on Thursday evening.
Sir Lindsay said he has “not been given notice of the date or time of any statement”, adding in the Commons: “The Prime Minister has promised to make a statement.
“What I would expect is that members will be able to see the report and I would hope time will be given for members to digest that.”
He added: “I’m more than happy to adjourn and leave it until later tonight if it arrives now, to give good time, I’m happy to work with the Leader of the House (Mr Rees-Mogg) to ensure this House is treated correctly, fairly and in the right manner.
“So I reassure him that those conversations between my office and the leader’s office, as well as Downing Street, are taking place to do the right thing by this House.”
Sir Keir Starmer has accused the Tories of publicly undermining the Union by treating Scotland with “disdain”.
