The Metropolitan Police has asked for “minimal reference” to events which it is investigating to be mentioned by Sue Gray in her report on Downing Street parties.
It is believed that the force is investigating around eight events, which could include the late-night party the evening before Prince Philip’s funeral.
The revelation means that some of the more controversial, and potentially more serious, elements will not be revealed by the civil servant’s report, potentially further delaying any decisions made by MPs over the future of the Prime Minister.
The Metropolitan Police said: “For the events the Met is investigating, we asked for minimal reference to be made in the Cabinet Office report.
“The Met did not ask for any limitations on other events in the report, or for the report to be delayed, but we have had ongoing contact with the Cabinet Office, including on the content of the report, to avoid any prejudice to our investigation.”
This morning Chris Philp, the digital minister, said that he had not been told that Sue Gray’s report had been received by Number 10.
He told Sky News at around 7:15: “I spoke to someone in Downing Street about half an hour ago and they certainly didn’t indicate it had been received - I don’t know a lot more than you do but I’ve certainly got no information as of right now that it’s been received.”
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The former Prime Minister has intervened over 'partygate', saying that she expects her successor to follow "full accountability" if the report by Sue Gray founds wrongdoing.
The Maidenhead Advertiser, the weekly newspaper in the former PM's constituency, reported her comments:
The proposed increase in National Insurance is "the wrong tax at the wrong time", shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has said.
Asked whether credibility means you have to raise tax if you want to spend, she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think you have to explain where every pound is going to come from, and that is why I think it is right to ask those who can pay a bit more and to ask those with the broadest shoulders to make the contribution.
"This is the wrong tax at the wrong time. It is a tax on ordinary working people and on jobs.
"There are people who could afford to pay a bit more tax. I think that is the right approach."
Labour MP Chris Bryant, who sits on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, told BBC Breakfast: "If you go back to the evacuation last year, lots of MPs had hundreds of names of people they were desperate to get out of Afghanistan - people who had worked with the armed forces, people who were constituents, or relatives of British citizens.
"I had about 134 names. We just wanted to make sure as many people as possible could get out and those who were most at risk got out.
"That's why we've been asking all these questions about who decided that Pen Farthing and Nowzad should be allowed to leave and take the final slot.
"I have no criticism of Nowzad, I just want to know who made the decision, and this matters now because we need to know how Downing Street and the UK works.
"Who makes the decisions? Is there such a chaos in Government that no-one knows, because if that's true the danger is we make bad decisions."
Ministers and MPs have previously said that the report into alleged lockdown breaches by civil servants and members of Government, conducted by a civil servant in the Cabinet Office, is "independent".
Today Chris Philp, the technology minister said that Sue Gray's report was being done "independently", and as such he does not know what it will contain.
He told LBC: "You will have to ask Sue Gray that, because the timing of the report is up to her.
"You will have seen, as I have seen, press speculation is it is because she's discussing with lawyers and police exactly what can and can't go in it.
"But the bottom line is, I don't know because it is a report she's compiling independently and I have no visibility of what may or may not be in it, or what her thought process is."
The front pages this morning signalled that Boris Johnson may end up succumbing to pressure from the right of the party to drop the proposed rise to National Insurance.
Chris Philp, on today's morning round tried to shut down suggestions from those within Government and in the Conservative Party, that the Prime Minister is "wobbling".
Robert Halfon, chair of the education select committee, told the Today Programme: “We definitely need the money for the NHS and social care, it can’t be just wished away.
"The public have an umbilical cord with the NHS. If we delay it, we just delay a problem as we’re going to have a cost of living crisis next year because of everything that’s happened with Covid and energy bills.
“We’ve done windfall tax before and we could do it on major industries. Oil companies for example, who are making huge profits at the moment.
“We have to make a choice - do we tax millions of low income workers or do we tax big business. As I say we should look at capital gains tax as well and introduce a cost of living package in the round.
“To me, 'conservative' means helping low income workers and those who are just about managing. The problem is, they bare the brunt of this national insurance tax and it would be much fairer to tax big business with windfall tax.
Mr Philp told Sky: "I spoke to someone in Downing Street about half an hour ago and they certainly didn’t indicate it had been received - I don’t know a lot more than you do but I’ve certainly got no information as of right now that it’s been received."
When asked if he still stands by his comments for which he was roundly mocked earlier this month, Mr Philp said: "Yes I do. He is someone who is working night and day and has been since he became Prime Minister two and a half years ago - he’s delivered Brexit, which obviously he thought was difficult or impossible; he delivered a landslide General Election victory; we’ve since been hit by Covid and he and his team having been working night and day to get us through this pandemic, as a result of which we’ve had a European-leading booster programme.
“None of that is an accident, it’s come as the result of an enormous amount of hard work that’s been led by the Prime Minister. I think the results speak louder than words.
When asked if the National Insurance line will go ahead, and if it is "set in stone" Chris Philp, DCMS Minister, told Sky: “Yes, it is going ahead. It was approved by the whole cabinet, it was passed by Parliament with a significant majority and the money is needed to fund the NHS which is something that is a national priority.
“It’s ￡36 billion over three years to fund the NHS and social care - we need to put that number in to make sure the NHS has the money it needs to recover after the pandemic, and this is a proportionate way of finding that money."
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