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These are from my colleague Jessica Elgot, with more detail of what happened at the Lee Cain leaving drinks in No 10 on 13 November 2020 (where Boris Johnson was photographed drinking).

Dominic Grieve, the former Conservative attorney general who left the party over his opposition to Boris Johnson’s Brexit policy, told BBC News that the Metropolitan police’s decision not to fine Johnson over the leaving do drinks at No 10 was “incomprehensible”. He said:

I certainly think the police decision is incomprehensible. If, as suggested, they fined other participants attending this party then I just can’t see how the prime minister wasn’t fined as well. I would have to ask the police for their reasoning on this. I do find it extraordinary.

According to the Mail on Sunday’s Dan Hodges, Johnson was not even sent a police questionnaire about the leaving drinks event on 13 November 2020.

If this is true, this would support the claim from Dominic Cummings, the PM’s former chief adviser, yesterday that the police simply decided to ignore some of the allegations relating to Johnson.

On the Today programme this morning Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said the Metropolitan police should explain why Boris Johnson was not fined over the No 10 leaving do on 13 November 2020, where he was photographed drinking. Khan said:

I think it’s important, when it comes to trust and confidence, when it comes to policing by consent, when it comes to questions being asked about the integrity of an investigation, that the police explain why they’ve reached the conclusions they have.

Yesterday was the first time I saw the photograph of Boris Johnson raising a glass, clearly bottles of wine laying around, others with wine in their hand, on a day when he said in the House of Commons, and I speak as a former parliamentarian and I know the importance of not lying or misleading in the House of Commons, that there wasn’t a party.

So you know, of course, Sue Gray will publish her report this week and of course the prime minister will have to answer for himself, but I think the police should explain why they reached their conclusions and provide that clarity.

Khan also claimed that generally he had tried to stay “well away” from the Met investigation into Partygate, particularly because he was a Labour mayor, and a Conservative PM was being investigated.

But in December last year, as new allegations about Partygate emerged, Khan said he thought the Met should investigate them. At that point the Met was resisting pressure to launch an inquiry, and it did not change its mind and open an investigation until more than a month later.

Sir Roger Gale, one of the Conservative MPs most critical of Boris Johnson over Partygate, is urging his colleagues to back a vote of no confidence in him.

For a no confidence vote to take place, 54 Tory MPs (15% of the parliamentary party), have to write to Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 Committee, calling for one. When the Partygate scandal erupted earlier in the year, before Russia invaded Ukraine, one report claimed that Johnson’s critics were only two letters short of the threshold. (Apart from Brady, no one knows, because the process is confidential.) But since then some MPs who submitted letters have withdrawn them, and now a leadership challenge seems unlikely.

Chris Mason, the BBC’s political editor, says the Sue Gray report may be published at lunchtime tomorrow.

Good morning. Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, drew the short straw last night and he has been touring the studios defending Boris Johnson following the publication yesterday of photographs of the PM drinking at what has been described as the leaving party for his director of communications, Lee Cain, on 13 November. From the pictures, it certainly looks like a party. But when Johnson was asked, at PMQs a year later, if a party had taken place in No 10 on that date, he said no.

Shapps is probably the most accomplished media performer in the cabinet – he is certainly the most capable of sounding reasonable in the face of persistently hostile questioning – but even he was struggling this morning. On certain points he could not really defend Johnson at all. Here are the key lines.

• Shapps would not deny reports that when Boris Johnson met Sue Gray a few weeks ago to discuss her report into Partygate he suggested she should abandon plans to publish it. This claim is in a story by Steven Swinford and Oliver Wright in the Times who report:

The Times has been told that Johnson suggested Gray should drop her plans to publish her report during a secret meeting with him earlier this month. Steve Barclay, his chief of staff, was also said to have been present.

“He asked her, is there much point in doing it now that it’s all out there?” a Whitehall source said. “He was inferring that she didn’t need to publish the report.” Another added: “They were exploring this idea of not having any report. It was being talked about [in Downing Street]. But politically they realised they couldn’t do it.”

Asked if this was correct, Shapps told Sky News:

I wasn’t in the room so I don’t know that’s the case. Exactly what was discussed, I don’t know.

Occasionally things get reported that are not entirely accurate. The civil service were there to make sure that all the correct processes were followed so I have no particular reason for concern about the two of them meeting.

• Shapps refused to accept that the event where Johnson was photographed was a party. He told Sky News:

The question is, was [Johnson] down there partying? No, clearly not. He’d gone by to say thanks and raise a glass to a colleague who was leaving.

On BBC Breakfast, when asked to accept it was a party, Shapps said: “It’s certainly a leaving event.” And on the Today programme he explained why he did not think the picture showed Johnson partying:

It looks to me that he was asked to go and thank a member of staff who was leaving, raises the glass to them, and I imagine comes in and out pretty quick, which is presumably why the police have not issued a fixed-penalty notice to the prime minister for a moment.

Shapps also said the photographs showed Johnson standing by his ministerial red box. He went on:

Those are the boxes that ministers carry their work in. It rather suggests that he potentially left his office, came via that office, thanked a member of staff who was leaving [and left soon afterwards].

• Shapps could not explain why Johnson told MPs that there was no party in No 10 on 13 November 2020. Asked why Johnson said that, Shapps replied: “The prime minister will answer for himself. He has said that when the Sue Gray report comes out, he will come to the house and answer fully.”

• Shapps said Johnson would be “disappointed” by what happened and that he would now wish he had not attended the event. Shapps said:

I also accept the prime minister has long since apologised, has made fundamental reforms in No 10 and have no doubt if he had his time again he wouldn’t have dropped by to say thank you to a member of staff leaving.

• Shapps refused to back calls for the Metropolitan police to explain why Johnson was not fined over this event. Earlier Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, told the Today programme the Met should explain its decision-making. But, asked if he agreed, Shapps said:

I don’t think the police should fight running commentaries, no. They will have had access to all of the evidence, hundreds of photographs … If you’re asking for transparency, there are lots of different ways for this to happen. But I wouldn’t expect the police, be it the Met or the Durham police [who are investigating Keir Starmer over an alleged breach of lockdown rules] to provide running commentaries either.

• He said the publication of the Sue Gray report was “imminent”.

Here is the agenda for the day.

Morning: Boris Johnson chairs cabinet.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

12pm: Ofgem officials give evidence to the Commons business committee about energy pricing. At 1pm Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, gives evidence.

After 12.30pm: MPs debate the Northern Ireland Troubles (legacy and reconciliation) bill.

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