Thread by @SteB777

This my take on the debacle over Sue Gray's report and the Metropolitan Police. I believe it all changed when Downing Street police officers spoke to Sue Gray. That this put the Met in legal peril. The crucial bit is knowledge of the facts. #whitewash
1/
theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/j…

I suspect most official cover-ups operate around turning a blind-eye principle, and making yourself wilfully blind to the facts. That this is why the police had been so reluctant to not investigate the party scandal, Prince Andrew etc, for FEAR of what they might find.
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As long as the police etc, can convincingly deny all knowledge of a crime i.e. through plausible deniability, they can refuse to investigate it. So the Met could refuse to investigate partygate, right up until there was clear evidence.
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The police could go along with the Prime Minister's assertion that no COVID rules were broken and these were work events, until evidence to the contrary i.e. after Sue Gray's report had been completed.
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What changed all this and forced the Met to launch a criminal investigation immediately, is when Downing Street police officers, spoke to Sue Gray, reportedly in surprising numbers. This changed the whole dynamic.
5/
mirror.co.uk/news/politics/…

None of the Downing Street police could be compelled to speak to Sue Gray, and if they had all refused to speak to her, almost certainly the Met would have launched no investigation, until after Sue Gray's report.
6/

If Downing Street police officers did speak to Sue Gray and gave her damning information about illegal gatherings in Downing St, it immediately put the leadership of the Met in legal peril themselves, because it'd be asked why hadn't the Met spoken to their own officers.
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I believe this is what triggered the Met to suddenly launch an investigation before Sue Gray's report had been published. It'd have immediately raised questions about the failure to investigate. If their own officers on duty at the time had know what was happening.
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In other words, this was a damage limitation exercise by the Met. Remember @GreenJennyJones had already complained to the IOPC that Downing Street police officers must have known what had taken place.
9/
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…

It's therefore inexplicable why the Met appears to have still failed to ask their own officers on duty in Downing Street at the time, what had been going on.
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It would have been more than seriously embarrassing if Sue Gray's report had been published and it said Downing Street police officers knew all along what was going on, and none of their superiors wanted to know about it. This is what would have put the Met in legal peril.
11/

@GreenJennyJones @GeorgeMonbiot @nazirafzal @JolyonMaugham @GoodLawProject @BylineTimes @peterjukes