Can the Tories afford to grant Boris Johnson a reprieve?

This was supposed to be the week of judgement for Boris Johnson and assorted Downing Street officials about whether they had breached Covid rules by holding parties. But they have won a temporary reprieve, because Sue Gray – the senior civil servant investigating the alleged rule-breaking parties – will delay publication of her report until the Met Police has conducted its own investigation of whether the Covid laws were breached and whether fixed penalty fines should be levied.

The big question is whether the decision of Met Commissioner Cressida Dick, to investigate, and the associated stay of judgment for the Prime Minister, is good or bad for him.

My judgement, and those of senior Tories, is that it is bad. Why? Because it is straightforwardly a terrible look for a prime minister to be at the centre of a police investigation. Some will say it gives the PM more time to prepare his excuses for whenever the Met reaches its conclusions and Gray publishes, and gives him more time to lobby his anxious MPs that this is not the time to throw him out.