Friday 20 May 2022 10:28 PM Civil servants threaten to BLOCK release of full Sue Gray probe as those fined ... trends now
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Senior civil servants are threatening to block the publication of an official report into Partygate after being told they will be named.
A Whitehall source said that two senior officials have indicated they are considering legal action to prevent themselves being identified in the report by Government ethics chief Sue Gray.
The move could see the report watered down or even delay its publication by weeks, dragging out Boris Johnson’s Partygate misery into the summer.
Boris Johnson pictured holding a cake on June 19, 2020 during a primary school visit
It will also heighten concerns in government that senior civil servants have received special treatment while more junior officials have been ‘thrown under a bus’. A source said one junior official had received five fines over events they had been told to attend by bosses. ‘You are talking about a young, twenty-something official who is facing hundreds of pounds in fines, while the people who organised the events have got away with it,’ the source said. ‘On a moral level it is pretty difficult to stomach.’
Cabinet Secretary Simon Case is among the senior officials who escaped punishment despite being present at at least one event where others were fined.
The Prime Minister, who faces criticism in Miss Gray’s report, yesterday insisted he would not try to water it down by
