Following our exclusive this afternoon, Ian Blackford writes to the PM:

“I write in reference to the serious allegations that have emerged in relation to two parties hosted at the Cabinet Secretary’s office last December, at which the Cabinet Secretary was present.

As you are aware the Cabinet Secretary is due to report on his investigations into parties at Downing Street in the coming days and it is clear that this process has been fundamentally and fatally undermined.

The Cabinet Secretary’s internal investigation cannot be trusted and it must now be scrapped. The public cannot possibly have any confidence in an inquiry, led by someone alleged to have been involved in the very matter being investigated.

[…]

Given the serious nature of the allegations, it would be proper for the Cabinet Secretary to be suspended while the investigation takes place”.