After such a wait, are we to expect a virtually blank report from Sue Gray?

A report free from information about the very things it was commissioned to report on sounds rather redundant but that’s where we seem to be, writes Harriet Williamson

It has been suggested the delay will benefit the prime minister (EPA)

At the time of writing, the interminable wait for Sue Gray’s report on Partygate continues. Over the past week or so, we have been planning the Voices coverage with the report looming large in our editorial consciousness. Perhaps we will see a version early this week.

It looks likely to be heavily censored, after the Metropolitan Police’s much-criticised decision to request that the report be stripped of references to the most serious alleged breaches of Covid legislation. A report free from information about the very matters it was commissioned to report on sounds rather redundant, but that’s where we seem to be.

In whatever form the report arrives, our political commentators are poised to provide readers with their insightful analysis and satirical sketches.

It has been suggested that delay on the matter of Partygate will benefit the prime minister. Time will allow the initial outrage to cool, and emotions will not be running quite as high. But perhaps the opposite will occur, and the longer the public is forced to wait for the alleged lawbreaking in government to be fully investigated and there to be consequences for actions taken, the more it will feel like those leading the country are taking us for fools.

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I believe we have a long way to go yet before there can be any collective forgetting or moving on from this government’s errors during the pandemic, including Partygate. The inquiry into the government’s handling of Covid, chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett, is still yet to begin its work.

For now, the fresh allegation that the prime minister left top-secret documents lying around when visitors came to his Downing Street flat will surely provide more material for our cartoonists and political sketch writer, who are currently quite spoiled for choice.

Yours,

Harriet Williamson

Voices commissioning editor