£180K COST OF LIVING IT UP
Tens of thousands of pounds have been spent on Sue Gray’s party inquiry, the Sunday Mail has been told – as Boris Johnson scrambles to cling on to power.
Some sources estimate the cost of the Partygate probe could be as high as £ 80,000.
A Cabinet Office source said no “additional public money” had been spent on the Sue Gray inquiry.
But several senior civil servants from the Propriety and Ethics unit have been devoting their working time to the probe for weeks.
And up to £100,000 more could be being splashed on the Met’s probe into lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street, as police sift through hundreds of photos, CCTV images and other evidence.
A senior former officer said last night the police have been left in a “no-win situation” over the investigation.
Tory MPs faced a weekend of soulsearching over whether to send letters of no- conf idence in Bor is Johnson’s leadership, following a chaotic “clear-out” of senior Downing Street staff and advisers.
Sources suggested the total number of no-confidence letters sent to backbench chief Sir Graham Brady could be in the 40s – just a handful away from triggering a vote. And the PM came under more pressure yesterday with the revelation police had been given a photo of him holding a beer at his birthday party in No10.
The snap, taken by Andrew Parsons, one of Johnson’s ta x- f unded vanit y photographers, is understood to be among 300 pictures given to police by Gray’s team.
Peter Kirkham, a former Detective Chief Inspector with Scotland Yard, said a team of five to 10 officers sifting through vast swathes of evidence over a period of weeks could cost in excess of £100,000. He said the Met Police would be “torn” between carrying out a throrough investigation to avoid any “unexploded bombs”, while keeping the costs as low as possible.
“This is why the police do not do reactive investigations of minor offences that are only going to lead to a fine,” he said.
“Even if these people get the full £10,000 ticket, although most of them will not, the question is, ‘ Why are we spending all this money to achieve this?’ With other minor offences like speeding, we ask what are the justifications for spending a shedload
of money? Normally there isn’t one, to spend vast amounts of money like this.
“This isn’t murder, it’s not got life imprisonment attached to it.”
Referring to the difficulties facing the Met Police and Commissioner Cressida Dick, Kirkham said: “The police didn’t want this investigation in the first place but the Commissioner is in a no-win situation.
“If she doesn’t spend the money she would be criticised for going at it half-cocked and ‘ helping Boris off the hook’, that’s how it would be portrayed. If she does spend the money and someone add s t he cos t s up retrospectively, they’ll say it cost us huge sums to achieve fines of a few hundred quid.
“She loses every time. That’s why the police are not the appropriate agency to deal with this.”
Asked by Deputy Labour Leader Angela Rayner to officially confirm the cost of the Gray inquiry, Tory Cabinet Office Minister Michael Ellis said the “Government does not comment on internal resourcing matters”.
Rayner said: “Time af ter time, taxpayers are paying the price for the Prime Minister’s personal failures.
“Boris Johnson could have saved so much time and expense by simply telling the truth in the first place, and now he’s adding insult to injury by refusing to come clean on the costs.
“It would be an utter insult if this time and money was spent on an investigation that didn’t see the light of day. The Prime Minister cannot be allowed to break his promise to publish the report in full.”
A Whitehall insider claimed Johnson was “totally consumed with saving himself ” – having spoken with 40 MPs oneto- one in recent weeks, yet only had calls with six world leaders.
“He even missed a call with Putin because he’s too busy trying to save himself,” the source said. No10 tried to frame Thursday’s mass departure of four senior members of staff as part of his promised “shake up”.
But insiders believe Downing Street was trying to mask the chaos created by the unexpected resignation of policy chief and Johnson’s long-time ally Munira Mirza.
Chief of staff Dan Rosenfeld, top official Martin Reynolds and comms chief Jack Doyle also quit.
Struggling Johnson last night found two people who are prepared to work for him. Cabinet office supremo Steve Barclay is being drafted in as the new No10 chief of staff while TV journalist Guto Harri becomes the PM’s top spin doctor.