Downing Street has denied reports that Boris Johnson suggested to Sue Gray to abandon plans to publish her report into the partygate scandal.
The Prime Minister is under growing pressure to explain a meeting he had with the senior civil servant earlier this month.
The claim that he asked her if there was any point in publication as all the details are in the public domain was made by a Whitehall source to the Times newspaper.
Downing Street has refused to publish the minutes of the meeting or give details of what it described as a “private meeting”.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman told journalists on Tuesday that he “did not recognise” the account in the Times.
The official said: “I am not getting into more details of the meeting, all I am seeking to make clear is that the Prime Minister did not ask her not to proceed with the report, he does want it be published and this was a meeting to discuss process.”
The Prime Minister has still not received the Sue Gray report on the series of rule-breaking events in Downing Street and Whitehall.
It could be published on Wednesday leaving Johnson to get the onslaught of a Commons statement out of the way on the same day as Prime Minister’s Questions and before parliament breaks for a Whitsun recess.
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