The Prime Minister allegedly met with top civil servant Sue Gray in secret to tell her to abandon her report into Partygate.
According to reports inThe Times, Boris Johnson suggested that Sue Gray should not publish her long-awaited report into Partygate during a secret meeting organised by Downing Street.
A source told The TImes: “He asked her is there much point in doing it now that it’s all out there, […] He was inferring that she didn’t need to publish the report.”
It follows an admittance by his team yesterday that it had requested a face-to-face meeting between the top civil servant tasked with investigating endemic Covid rule-breaking in Downing Street and Whitehall.
Previously, Downing Street had maintained that Sue Gray requested the meeting and refused to reveal what had been discussed.
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Speechless.
We now know the reason the PM met with Sue Gray, was to ask her not to release the report.
Despite the meeting, it is believed that Sue Gray could release her report as early as Wednesday morning.
The news follows the release of photographs apparently showing the Prime Minister drinking at a party in No.10 when, eight days before, he had banned people from socialising indoor with people outside their household and weddings were not allowed.
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Mr Johnson wasn’t fined for attending the event, but others were – including at least one other person pictured in the photographs.
Asked by an MP in the House of Commons on 8 December last year whether there had been a gathering on that date, the Prime Minister said there was not.
He told Labour MP Catherine West : “I am sure that whatever happened, the guidance was followed and the rules were followed at all times.”
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The Prime Minister is now open to the charge of knowingly misleading parliament.
A Downing Street source has said that the fact the Prime Minister had his red box and was ‘dropping in on a leaving do for a colleague’ made the case that he was ‘believed he was working’.
The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who oversees the Metropolitan Police, has this morning joined calls for the force to explain why they didn’t fine Boris Johnson for attending the lockdown party.
He told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today Programme that the force should set out its thinking behind the decision not to fine the Prime Minister, after the release of new photographs byITVNews on Monday night.
21/05/2020. London, United Kingdom. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak join the Nation in the ‘Clap for our Carers’ at 8pm outside 10 Downing Street, to give thanks to the NHS and Key Workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Picture by Pippa Fowles / No 10 Downing Street.
Mr Khan said: “I think it’s important when it comes to trust and confidence, when it comes to policing by consent, when it comes to questions being asked about the integrity of an investigation, that the police explain why they reached the conclusions they have.”
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Police announced they had concluded their Partygate investigation on Thursday after handing out 126 fines for 10 gatherings.
Mr Johnson received one fixed penalty notice for attending an illegal gathering, despite evidence that he was also present at others.
The Liberal Democrats have now asked the Police Watchdog to investigate the Met’s decision.
‘Busiest’ Easter bank holiday weekend expected as 19 million people hit the roads
Emily Sergeant
It’s expected to be one of the busiest Easter bank holidays in three years, as millions of people travel across the UK.
With the four-day weekend upon us, and people nationwide prepare to make the journey to visit family or friends over their extra couple of days off work or school, the RAC has now issued one of its annual travel warnings – anticipating that 19 million people could be hitting the roads from this Thursday evening onwards.
It’s all according to a new study of drivers’ spring getaway plans carried out by the RAC and traffic analytics specialists INRIX.
Research is suggesting that traffic will be equally severe on Thursday 17, Good Friday, and Saturday 19 April, with drivers planning around 2.7 million trips every day during that period, but the number of planned trips does drop slightly on Easter Sunday to 2.5 million.
Sadly, that dip is only short-lived, as the number of trips increases once again to a further 2.7 million on bank holiday Monday as millions of people look to return home.
19 million people are expected to hit the roads over the Easter bank holiday weekend / Credit: Geograph | Pxfuel
To make matters even worse, it’s thought that a further 6.2 million journeys are anticipated at some point over the Easter bank holiday weekend, but drivers planning these trips are still unsure exactly when they’ll travel.
The ‘notorious British weather’ is likely to be a big factor in travel decision making, according to the RAC.
INRIX expects that tomorrow (Thursday 17) will be the worst day for traffic, when jams are likely to increase by nearly a third (30%) more than usual.
Meanwhile, on Good Friday, the lengthiest hold-ups are expected between 11am to 1pm, so drivers are therefore being advised to start their trips as early as possible in the morning, or delay them until later in the afternoon.
Motorists are being warned to plan their journeys in advance / Credit: pxfuel
“The bank holiday weekend clashes with the end of the Easter break for many schools, which we think will change the nature of this year’s getaway,” admitted RAC breakdown spokesperson, Alice Simpson.
“Although journey numbers are still very high, we’re anticipating more day trips and weekend breaks than people heading off on one and two-week stints… [so] this could lead to a ‘hat-trick of hold-ups’ on Thursday, Friday and Saturday as drivers visit family and friends.
“But while getaway journeys may be shorter in length, we’re still expecting to see extremely high levels of traffic from Thursday onwards, with the greatest number of Easter getaway trips planned for three years.”
Alice warned that drivers should expect queues if they ‘don’t plan the best time to set off’.
“It’s always best to travel as early as possible in the morning or later in the day when most of the traffic has eased,” she added.
Featured Image – Geograph
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Onlookers ‘in tears’ after tiny duckling rescued from storm drain in beauty spot
Daisy Jackson
The RSPCA has shared a heartwarming video of a reunion between a tiny duckling and his mum, after the baby bird fell into a storm drain.
The charity, with the help of staff in the nearby Grandpa Greene’s Luxury Ice Cream Parlour, managed to fish the tiny bird out of the storm drain in a painstaking two-hour-long operation.
Miraculously, the duckling was unharmed, and his mum was waiting nearby on the canal in Saddleworth ready to be reunited with her baby.
The RSPCA has now thanked the staff member who helped rescue the duckling, and issued a warning to the public to keep dogs on a lead when near wildlife, believing the poor bird was chased by a dog before falling down the five-feet-high grid.
The rescue operation too place in Diggle last Wednesday 9 April, with Animal Rescue Officer Lee Ferrans taking on the ‘long and painstaking’ process of tempting the duckling into a net.
Lee said: “I wasn’t able to lift the grid so the only thing I could do was push an extendable pole straight down and try to catch the duckling in a net. There wasn’t a lot of room for manoeuvre and the net kept catching on all the debris.
“Just when I thought I’d been successful, the duckling kept disappearing into a drain on one side and then popping out again. A member of staff from Grandpa Greene’s had just finished her shift and came across to the other side of the canal to help me. I unscrewed the top of the pole with the net and held it down on one side of the drain while she used another section to gently encourage the bird to go into the net.
“It was quite a long and painstaking rescue but we eventually managed to bring the little one back up safely after more than two hours.”
The pair then placed the duckling into a cardboard box before heading further up the canal to reunite them with their mother and six sibling ducklings.
The adult duck ‘instantly recognised’ the chirping and swam straight towards it.
Lee added: “A little crowd had gathered and as the family were reunited people were shedding tears. It was a really lovely moment to see them all back together.
“I’d especially like to thank the member of staff from Grandpa Greene’s who offered an extra pair of hands – I couldn’t have done it without her – and to all the people in the area who stopped and were concerned.
“Storm drains can be a bit of a menace for ducklings, especially at this time of the year when there are babies around, and this brood was only a few days old.”
Georgina Pellant -
24th May 2022 
