TRUSS PLEADS FOR TIME TO SAVE BORIS

AS CRUNCH SUE GRAY REPORT HEADS TO NO 10, MINISTER SAYS NOW HOLD ON FOR POLICE PROBE

- Nicholas Cecil, David Bond and Rachael Burford

CABINET minister Liz Truss today led a defence of Boris Johnson by urging MPs to wait for Scotland Yard’s findings on “Partygate” rather than moving against him after a top civil servant’s report into the scandal.

With Westminster braced for Sue Gray to deliver her report into the series of gatherings in Downing Street, possibly as early as today, the Foreign Secretary issued the plea as some Tory MPs were considering sending in letters of no confidence in the Prime Minister. Ministers have for days urged Tory backbenchers to wait for the Gray report before deciding whether to act against Mr Johnson.

However, in an apparent change in government tactics, Foreign Secretary Ms Truss said MPs should now wait for the Metropolitan Police to report.

The force announced yesterday that it was investigating a series of potentially Covid law-busting “events” in Downing Street and Whitehall when millions of people across Britain were following lockdown rules or other restrictions.

“We need to wait for the results of the Sue Gray report and the police investigation,” Ms Truss told Sky News.

The Met police inquiry could take weeks, even months, to be completed.

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “No one in Britain needs the Sue Gray report or the police to know that Boris Johnson needs to go. He can’t kick this into the long grass anymore.” However, anger among Tory MPs over “Partygate” has dissipated in recent days, especially with the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.