So who DID call the Boris and Sue Gray Partygate meeting?

A WAR of words broke out yesterday over a meeting between Boris Johnson and Sue Gray ahead of her long-awaited Partygate report, after both sides denied initiating the meeting.

Ms Gray’s report into lockdownbreaking parties in Downing Street, set to be published by the end of the week, comes after the Metropolitan Police concluded its £460,000 investigation after issuing 126 fines to 83 people, including the PM, his wife Carrie Johnson, and Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

No10 hopes that Ms Gray’s report will mark the end of the saga, which has dominated headlines despite the Ukraine and cost-of-living crises.

Yesterday, Sky News revealed Ms Gray and Mr Johnson met several weeks ago to discuss the report prompting Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner to demand the Prime Minister ‘urgently explain’ why the ‘secret meeting’ had taken place. She said: ‘Public confidence in the process is already depleted, and people deserve to know the truth. The Sue Gray report must be published in full and with all accompanying evidence.’

No10 hit back, with a source saying: ‘The PM did not request the meeting and hasn’t tried to influence the outcome in any way.’

But then a spokesman for the inquiry disputed claims Ms Gray had initiated the meeting, which discussed whether photos from the parties would be made public.

Separately, The Mail on Sunday has been told the pair discussed whether pictures containing intelligence officers could be published – something denied by No10.

Tensions are also running high within No10 over the fines, in particular the ‘gender divide’.

It is understood that about threequarters of those receiving penalties were ‘young, female members of staff’. A source said: ‘It’s not a good look. The older males seem to have escaped lightly while younger staff who felt they had no option but to attend have been hit. It looks as if the old boys’ network – and expensive legal advice – saved them.’

Around 30 people, including the PM, have already been told they are likely to be named by Ms Gray. They have until tonight to lodge any objection. Mr Johnson will then face another inquiry into whether he lied to Parliament when he claimed that no laws had been broken in Downing Street.

Claims are also circulating around Westminster about a so-called ‘karaoke and cocaine’ party that young MPs – mainly Tories but at least one Labour – held in London but not on the Parliamentary Estate during the week of the local elections.

No10 said the Sue Gray report was ‘completely independent’ and it was her decision what to publish.

Ms Rayner, like Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, has promised to resign if fined over the ‘Beergate’ meeting they attended in Durham.