Security logs crucial to future of key staff as Sue Gray also ‘has details of new social event’

The senior civil servant investigating allegations of at least nine lockdown-breaking parties at Downing Street has been given access to a detailed log of staff movements in and out of the building from security data including swipecards.

Whitehall figures say the inquiry by Sue Gray – who is expected to publish a report of about 25 pages this week – has been “forensic”, looking in “granular detail” at who was in the building for social gatherings, some of which went on into the early hours, and the precise timings of their arrivals and departures.

Less than four months ago, the PM was riding high and telling jokes in Manchester, a world away from where he is now

It was not meant to fall apart as fast as this. After Boris Johnson won the general election in December 2019, he declared in a victory address: “I, and we, will never take your support for granted.”

The prime minister’s 80-seat majority, a victory for the “get Brexit done” campaign, appeared to leave him impregnable. For 18 months after, Johnson continued to defy political gravity despite repeated missteps, as the pandemic came to Britain’s shores.