Robert Peston Robert Peston

The bombshell email that could spell disaster for Boris

(Getty images)

I know who sent the email to Martin Reynolds on 20 May 2020 telling him the planned ‘bring your own booze’ party should not go ahead, though the sender tells me he does not want to be seen as agent provocateur against the Prime Minister and has asked me not to name him.

Before I go on, I regard the evidence of this ‘senior official’ – as styled by Dominic Cummings in his blog yesterday – as compelling, because if it turns out he is lying he knows it will come out and he would be seriously damaged. The email was copied to an official in Reynolds’s office and to the PM’s then main aide – now estranged – Dominic Cummings.

Sue Gray, who is investigating that party and others, can easily find the email

Sue Gray, who is investigating that party and others, can easily find the email, since there will not be so many received by Reynolds and Cummings on 20 May.

She has also told the sender of the dynamite email she would like to speak with him but has not yet. When she does, he will both point her to the email and he will tell her that Reynolds immediately came to his office after receipt of the email and asked him why the party should be cancelled.

Reynolds was told by the email sender – ‘in the nicest possible way’ – that the party was a kind sentiment but it should be cancelled because it broke the rules. Reynolds allegedly said he feared it could be more embarrassing to cancel. The official cannot remember whether he also told the PM the party should be cancelled. 

‘I probably did but I honestly can’t remember,’ he told me.

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Robert Peston
Written by
Robert Peston
Robert Peston is Political Editor of ITV News and host of the weekly political discussion show Peston. His articles originally appeared on his ITV News blog.

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