What has happened to the Priti Patel bullying inquiry?

The verdict, if it is made, will be ‘determined in secret, alone, by a prime minister who has already pledged his allegiance to the minister’, reports Rob Merrick

The inquiry into whether Patel breached the ministerial code started seven long months ago (Getty)

Coronavirus was just a strange word we barely understood when the inquiry into a “tsunami” of bullying allegations against Priti Patel began, it was that long ago.

Since then, a lockdown has been imposed, has been lifted, has been sort-of reimposed in many areas, a decent summer came and went, the football season restarted and concluded – but still it drags on, for seven long months so far.

At this rate, Sir John Chilcot, who took more than seven years to investigate the Iraq War, will be given a run for his money. So what is going on?