Police probing event in Downing Street flat after Gray report details 'serious failure' to observe lockdown standards

The senior civil servant has said a number of events held at the heart of Government represent a “serious failure” to observe the restrictions the country was facing throughout the pandemic.

The 11-page document detailed 16 events that Ms Gray was asked to look into, and said that only four of these would not be looked into by the Metropolitan Police.

The events on Scotland Yard’s radar now include one in the Downing Street flat on November 13 2020, the day Dominic Cummings left his job as a top aide.

Ms Gray criticised “failures of leadership and judgment” by parts of No 10 and the Cabinet Office.

She said: “Against the backdrop of the pandemic, when the Government was asking citizens to accept far-reaching restrictions on their lives, some of the behaviour surrounding these gatherings is difficult to justify.

“At least some of the gatherings in question represent a serious failure to observe not just the high standards expected of those working at the heart of Government but also of the standards expected of the entire British population at the time.”

Following the interventions by the Met last week, in which she was asked to publish “minimal” detail on the gatherings under investigation by the force, Ms Gray said that it was “not possible at present to provide a meaningful report” into what happened.

She said: “As a result of the Metropolitan Police’s investigations, and so as not to prejudice the police investigative process, they have told me that it would only be appropriate to make minimal reference to the gatherings on the dates they are investigating.

“Unfortunately, this necessarily means that I am extremely limited in what I can say about those events and it is not possible at present to provide a meaningful report setting out and analysing the extensive factual information I have been able to gather.”