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Jan 28 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
In many eyes, the reputation of Cressida Dick and the Met Police will be significantly damaged by the timing of her decision to investigate. There was plenty of prima facie evidence of crimes in Downing Street weeks ago. Dick refused to investigate then. She is only…
investigating when Sue Gray was poised to published a comprehensive account of all that evidence, and at the precise moment when Dick’s intervention makes it impossible for Gray to publish that comprehensive account. If Gray published anything, it will be censored…
to the point of rendering any conclusions meaningless. No wonder so many believe that the Met Commissioner has rescued Boris Johnson. This may all be cock-up rather than conspiracy, but an astute Met should have seen the cock-up coming and swerved it, arguably. The…
impression - even if misleading - of police bailing out political leaders is a terrible look for the UK.

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Robert Peston Profile picture
Jan 28
On the basis of the statement from the Met Police this morning, it’s hard to see how Sue Gray can publish anything meaningful till the police inquiries are concluded. When she initially decided her report had to be put on hold till the Met had finished their work, she was…
seemingly correct. It is a terrible mess. Here is the Met statement: “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”. The timing of this announcement from the Met is bizarre. It should have…
Read 4 tweets
Robert Peston Profile picture
Jan 26
There is quite a lot of misinformation and rumour going around about the Sue Gray report. So here is now my best understanding of where we are. The likelihood is that it will be published today, though that is not definite. The uncertainty hinges around final bureaucratic…
processes that need to be undergone, such as checking with the Met Police that there is nothing in it that would prejudice their criminal investigation, and running it past Whitehall human resources and government lawyers. I am told categorically that the PM has…
committed to publish in full whatever Gray gives him, which in that sense will be the full report, not a summary, and that Downing St will not play politics with it. We’ll see. And if there are excisions, they will largely be of explosive detail relevant to the police…
Read 4 tweets
Robert Peston Profile picture
Jan 25
Here is the nutshell of the nightmare for PM and Conservative Party: the Met is investigating because Sue Gray passed to the Met prima facie evidence that Downing Street parties broke the law; that is what her report would have implied if already published (she would have said…
that the illegality question was for the police to determine); the PM’s spokesman says the PM is confident he did not break the law, presumably because (as Johnson has repeatedly said) no one told him he was at a rule breaking event; but as everyone knows,…
ignorance of the law is almost never a defence, especially for someone who wrote the relevant law; so if the Met finds he attended an illegal party, he like everyone there would have broken the law; I understand why Tory MPs feel they can’t themselves pass judgement…
Read 5 tweets
Robert Peston Profile picture
Jan 18
My take on all that no-confidence letter speculation. 1) disenchantment with Boris Johnson among Tory MPs - especially the 2019 intake - continues to grow. Don’t believe all that “it’s plateauing”, “there’s not much anger from voters” stuff you can read in some places. 2) Sir…
Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 committee of backbench Tory MPs, is not in a position to announce a confidence vote in Boris Johnson. He is still some way short of the 54 no-confidence letters needed to trigger a ballot. My guess is he is short…
circa 10 letters. 3) But if all the MPs threatening to put in letters actually do so, the 54 threshold may be breached in next few days. 4) my hunch is that the threshold won’t be breached before Sue Gray publishes her report into Downing Street parties. As I said…
Read 4 tweets
Robert Peston Profile picture
Jan 7
.⁦@Dominic2306⁩ says there was a rule breaking drinks party in Downing St on 20 May 2020 (not the garden drinks that have been reported) and that there is a confirmatory email trail. A new alleged partygate scandal for Sue Gray to investigate
And here is @Dominic2306 detail about the alleged 20 May party. He explains that he however encouraged Downing St staff to work in the garden, and that is the background to the 15 May Guardian photo
Cummings also criticises the PM for failing to prioritise the manufacture and distribution of antivirals, against his advice, which would he says have significantly reduced Covid hospitalisation rates. Full Cummings blog here dominiccummings.substack.com/p/parties-phot…
Read 9 tweets
Robert Peston Profile picture
Jan 6
The more I reflect on the exchange of letters between Lord Geidt and @BorisJohnson the stranger it seems. In his decision not to resign, Geidt is relying on his original curious judgement that it is OK for the PM’s lifestyle to be funded by the Tory Party and Brownlow, and that…
the question of when and whether Johnson knew where the money was coming from, and when and whether Johnson disclosed it in the register of ministerial interests, is a second order one. But if that is really so, why not privatise all a PM’s salary and living costs to…
Tory donors? Geidt seems to be suggesting that the privatisation of Downing St would be acceptable - and that the convoluted steps Johnson subsequently took to repay Brownlow and the Tory Party with a personal loan were unnecessary (poor Johnson!). And if Geidt doesn’t…
Read 5 tweets

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