Will Sue Gray row help Boris Johnson’s Partygate case?

Adam Forrest takes a look at the senior civil servant’s link to Labour and whether the ex-PM can take advantage of bias concerns

Boris Johnson still under pressure over Partygate (PA)

Believe it or not, Boris Johnson is hard at work. The former prime minister and his allies are beavering away on a spin operation ahead of his televised Partygate inquiry hearing later this month in the hope the committee of MPs can be discredited.

It had looked a very tough task. The privileges committee’s 24-page interim report was damning stuff. The cross-party group saying it would have been “obvious” to Mr Johnson that No 10 gatherings breached Covid rules.

But Mr Johnson has been handed a gift from an unlikely source – top civil servant Sue Gray. She could become Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, which has allowed Team Johnson to cry “stitch-up”.