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Jan 31 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
It matters that the Cabinet Office briefed that Sue Gray is delivering an “update” to the PM and NOT her report or definitive findings. She chooses her words carefully. As the PM has always said “judge me on the report”, she is explicitly saying this is not the moment to…
convict and evict him or find him innocent. There is also an implication in the “update” word that she is holding the PM to his earlier commitment to publish her full report, despite prevarication from Downing St this morning, as and when the police remove their objections
That said, it is not her decision what will subsequently be published. The PM is shortly to publish her investigation “update”in full. And as the commissioner of the report, the PM may feel he has honoured his commitment to her. it will eventually be his decision whether her…
full unedited findings should ever be published. If he chooses not to publish them, the opposition parties will accuse him of bad faith. But I doubt he’ll care.

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Robert Peston Profile picture
Feb 2
The Chancellor is tomorrow set to unveil a set of loans, subsidies and rebates to reduce the impact of the expected £700 increase in typical household energy bills that will bite from April. He’ll do so at circa 11am, to coincide with the Ofgem announcement of new price cap…
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Feb 1
It gets worse for the Department of Health and Social Care. The public sector’s auditor in chief, Garett Davies, refused to give a clean bill of health to the department’s 2020/21 accounts, he “qualified” the accounts (in the jargon) because “£1.3 billion…
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Feb 1
Buried on page 199 of the Department of Health and Social Care’s annual report published yesterday is the shocking disclosure that it has incurred £8.7bn of losses - £8.7bn ! - on £12.1bn of PPE bought in 2020/21. Think about how that money could have been…
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Robert Peston Profile picture
Jan 31
For Tory MPs who regard partygate as being a prime ministerial competence issue, rather than an ethical issue, it is striking that of the three "parties" or events Sue Gray was asked to investigate by the PM, two are not deemed by the Met Police as being potential breaches...
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to be in scope of her investigation. There are a couple of inferences to be drawn. 1) Gray was robustly independent in her investigation, taking her inquiry considerably further than the PM would have wanted or expected. 2) The PM is now...
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Robert Peston Profile picture
Jan 28
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…
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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…
Read 4 tweets
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

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