A stay of execution or death by a thousand cuts? In a statement released this morning, the Metropolitan Police has asked that “minimal reference” to allegedly lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street be made in the Sue Gray report.
This leaves the Cabinet Office with two choices. First, to publish a partial report, lacking in the key details which drove its very inception. This leads to the inevitable question, what is the point of publishing a half-baked report where the most egregious offences have been censored? The other option is to postpone publication until after the Met investigation is complete.
In the immediate term, either outcome may represent a boost for the Prime Minister, who had been braced for more letters of no confidence to be sent to the 1922 Committee following its publication.
However, a delay might also prevent a Number 10 reset, with its red meat and big dogs. It may allow the crisis facing Boris Johnson to rumble on, perhaps amid further revelations, and further scar the Tory Party brand. All with the May local elections looming.
As for the Met, there are serious questions to answer over the timing of the probe, after weeks of refusing to investigate, as well as how the Gray report — a fact-finding exercise — would prejudice a criminal investigation given that juries do not preside over lockdown breaches.
After months of this scandal, the public and the Conservative Party — but also the Prime Minister — need the report to provide a moment of clarity. To understand what really happened, lance the increasingly toxic boil at the heart of Government and provide a focal point for decision making.
That moment of catharsis will not come in the short term in any satisfactory form. For now, at least, the party seems far from over.
