THE partygate scandal is getting “murkier by the minute” as Boris Johnson manoeuvres to save his own skin, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

The SNP leader said it appeared that the inquiry process was being used to help keep Johnson in post “at the expense of public accountability”.

The First Minister’s intervention came after the Met Police said it would not allow Sue Gray to publish more than “minimal references” to potential breaches of lockdown laws which they are currently investigating.

The Met’s position comes despite a previous refusal to investigate - for which they are facing legal action - and a refusal to say exactly which lockdown-busting Whitehall events they are investigating.

The National:

Some have suggested that Cressida Dick, the Met commissioner (above with Johnson), is “returning the favour” to the Tory government after being allowed to keep her job in the wake of the Sarah Everard case, and the heavy-handed policing of the vigil for the murdered woman.

“There is no legal justification for stripping details from the report,” Labour MP Kate Osamor said. “This is a cover-up.”

The news of the London police's intervention in the case has sparked widespread fury. 

Commenting on the Met’s restriction of Sue Gray, BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg wrote: “The situation with the Met is extremely messy, but I’m told by several sources it’s not the only factor holding all of this up, there is a lot of wrangling inside govt and Cabinet Office over how and what is published.”

READ MORE: Why is it taking so long for the Sue Gray partygate report to be released?

Nicola Sturgeon responded: “This gets murkier by the minute. Sue Gray and the Met are in difficult positions but the sequence of events and the situation arrived at now creates the suspicion - however unfairly - that the process of inquiry is aiding Johnson at the expense of public accountability.

“I doubt Johnson cares about damage to the reputations of others - individuals or institutions - as long as he saves his own skin. But these things matter. Rapid conclusion and full publication of the findings of inquiries surely now essential for public trust.”

Sturgeon’s claim that “the process of inquiry is aiding Johnson at the expense of public accountability” seemingly refers to the way in which the Tories have been delaying answering for the parties held in breach of lockdown rules by pointing to ongoing probes.

The first, an internal inquiry was set up to look into the events amid mounting public outrage.

Initially led by Simon Case, he was replaced at this inquiry’s head by Sue Gray after he was found to have been implicated in the same partygate scandal he had been tasked with investigating.

The Conservatives have been hiding behind the Gray report when asked about Johnson’s involvement in the lockdown breaches. Tories said the findings should not be pre-empted, despite the Prime Minister having admitted to parliament that he attended one such event.

Following calls for Johnson to resign, a UK Government figure even accused Scottish Conservative Douglas Ross of "wrongly pre-judging" the Prime Minister as he had done Nicola Sturgeon before the inquiry into her handling of the Alex Salmond case concluded.

As Gray’s report was said to be nearing completion - a situation which is still surrounded by conflicting reports - the Met stepped in. The force U-turned on its previous refusal to investigate parties at No 10.

Now, the police investigation looks set to be used by the Tories in the same way as Gray’s report had been. Any questions about Johnson’s rule-breaking will likely be deflected as we are told to wait for the conclusions of the Met investigation.

Boris Johnson has falsely referred to Gray’s investigation as an “independent inquiry”. Gray is a government employee, and Johnson will have final say over what from her report is or is not published.