Sue Gray, the woman who used to run a pub in Northern Ireland, is now a senior cabinet office employee and currently the most talked-about person in the UK.
The top civil servant has been tasked with investigating alleged breaches of the Covid-19 restrictions at Downing Street, involving parties and gatherings during lockdown.
At the time, parties were banned and people couldn't see their friends or family and loved ones who were dying alone in hospitals.
Gray took over the inquiry into a string of 'parties' in Whitehall between May 2020 and April 2021 from Cabinet Secretary Simon Case after it emerged a party had been held in his own office.
The probe has been set up to get “a general understanding of the nature of the gatherings” - saying who attended, the “setting and the purpose”, and “reference to adherence to the guidance in place at the time”.
Its remit does not include saying whether the Prime Minister Boris Johnson broke the law - that is for police - or the Ministerial Code - that is for a different watchdog.
On Tuesday , Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick confirmed her officers will investigate "a number of events" where Covid lockdown rules were allegedly broken.
Gray's full report into parties across Downing Street and Whitehall could be published as soon as today.
But it has to go to Downing Street first before it gets published, which is expected to be followed by a statement from Mr Johnson in the House of Commons.
The PM has already apologised for attending a "bring your own booze" event on 20 May 2020, during the first lockdown, saying he thought it was a "work event".
But fresh allegations of a birthday party being held for Mr Johnson in June 2020 came to light earlier this week.
Some Conservative MPs have called openly for Mr Johnson to resign over the party allegations.
But many Tories are waiting for the Gray report before deciding whether to submit letters of no confidence in him, which could potentially trigger a leadership contest.
Who is Sue Gray?
The 64-year-old is married to country and western singer Bill Conlon from Co Down and the two ran the Cove Bar outside Newry together during the 1980s.
Gray, who is second permanent secretary at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, was previously director-general of propriety and ethics in the Cabinet Office from 2012 to 2018, and has been regarded as a figure who will not pull any punches in an inquiry.
Her reputation stems from her time in the Cabinet Office, where she was in charge of leading investigations into the actions of ministers.
One such investigation led to the sacking of Theresa May's former deputy Damian Green, who was accused of inappropriate behaviour towards an activist, which he denied, and of having pornography on his Commons computer.
Gray is also part of the panel deciding on who will be next chair of the media regulator Ofcom.
In 2015, she was dubbed “the most powerful person you’ve never heard of” by BBC Newsnight’s then policy editor Chris Cook.
After her time as head of ethics in the Cabinet Office, she served as the permanent secretary of Northern Ireland's Department of Finance from 2018 to 2021, before taking up her current post.
Gray once held ambitions of becoming head of Northern Ireland's Civil Service. She was one of the shortlisted candidates to succeed David Sterling when he stepped down as head of the NICS in August 2020.
She later told BBC Northern Ireland's The View of her unsuccessful bid : “I really wanted the job, but had to get over it. Why didn't I get the job? I'm not sure I'll ever quite know but I suspect, you know, I suspect people may have thought that I perhaps was too much of a challenger, or a disrupter.”
“Perhaps I would bring about... too much change. And yes, I wanted to have change,” she added.
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