Diane Abbott: "Anyone who has actually read the Sue Gray report can only wonder what she was made to leave out?" Asks whether PM will guarantee her full unredacted report will be published when police inquiry is complete.
PM doesn't say yes.
Former Tory Chief Whip Mark Harper asks same question
Prime Minister again doesn't say yes. Says he "will take a decision" when the police inquiry is complete.
But the full report is what lots of Tory MPs say they were waiting for...
Remember "full transparency" was promised
Already something of a retreat from No 10. They say that "at the end of the process, the PM will ask SG to update her work in light of what is found. He will publish that update."
That seems to commit to publishing whatever it is Sue Gray wants to publish at that time.
What's remarkable about this is that PM/No 10 political operation thought the line adopted in the Commons would hold.
PM is asked again whether or not he was at the flat on the evening of 13th November. He again refuses to answer saying he won't comment before police inquiry concludes.
Keir Starmer: "The PM repeatedly assured the House the guidance was followed and the rules were followed...Yet there can be no doubt that the Prime Minister himself is subject to criminal investigation."
Starmer: "Rather than come clean, every step of the way he's insulted the public's intelligence. And now he's finally fallen back on his usual excuse. It's everyone's fault but his."
Starmer: "The British public don't believe a word of it...they think he should do the decent thing and resign. Of course, he won't. Just as he's done throughout his life he's damaged everyone and everything around him along the way."
"I want to express my deepest gratitude to Sue Gray."
PM: "I want to say simply sorry, for all the the things which we got wrong. It's no use saying this or that was within the rules, that people were working hard...it isn't enough to say sorry...I of course, accept Sue Gray's general findings in full."
Johnson announces a big, big institutional Whitehall reform- an Office of the Prime Minister, with its own Permanent Secretary
What does this all mean? In short, this is not good for No 10, at all. For the following reasons:
1) This most of all- take a step back. A senior civil servant has confirmed the police are investigating 12 potentially illegal events at heart of govt, incl. PM's own flat.
As Sue Gray makes clear, investigation does not mean that they will be found to be against the law or rule breaking but the fact that there are so many, that that implies it was a pattern, not a one-off, is clearly deeply uncomfortable for the Prime Minister and government.
2) SG makes clear she thinks No 10 and the heart of govt did not meet the standards they were expecting of the country. Politically, that's awful. It's also awful because PM has said again and again all guidance and rules were followed. How can those things cohere?
Sue Gray: "Against the backdrop of the pandemic, when the Government was asking citizens to accept far-reaching restrictions on their lives, some of the behaviour surrounding these gatherings is difficult to justify."
Gray: "At least some of the gatherings in question represent a serious failure to observe not just the high standards expected of those working at the heart of Government but also of the standards expected of the entire British population at the time."
Gray: "At times it seems there was too little thought given to what was happening across the country in considering the appropriateness of some of these
gatherings, the risks they presented to public health and how they might appear to the public."