Scotland Yard wants “minimal reference” made to alleged incidents the force is investigating.
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The Metropolitan Police has asked senior civil servant Sue Gray to make “minimal reference” to events they are investigating in her report.
Ms Gray’s inquiry into lockdown parties in Downing Street had been due to be released this week.
But the Met has asked her to leave out details of parties they are investigating for Covid rule-breaking.
In a statement, it said it wanted to “avoid any prejudice to our investigation”.
On Tuesday, Met Commissioner Cressida Dick announced the force had launched its own inquiry after being handed information by Sue Gray.
It has since been unclear how much the Gray report would be able to say while a police investigation was under way.
The Met insists it has not asked for Ms Gray’s report to be delayed.
In a statement on Friday, the force added it had not asked for “any limitations” on what her report says about gatherings that are not being investigated by its officers.
On Thursday, Boris Johnson insisted Ms Gray’s report would be published “in full” – although he did not say when it was expected to be published.
We had expected the Sue Gray report to be published earlier this week.
The Met announcing its own investigation threw a spanner in the works, which is still being dealt with.
For the past few days, we’ve known Sue Gray was talking to the Met and Government lawyers about what could and couldn’t be published.
Ms Gray wants to send a copy of the report to No 10 which can be published in full.
My understanding is that Sue Gray still intends to publish a report.
But the timings are unclear and this morning’s statement from the Met will lead some to question whether the most serious allegations could be watered down.
