Lord McDonald, a crossbench peer and former DPP:

The risk of the police intervention this morning is that this leaves things hanging in the air for weeks and months, and that seems obviously not to be in the public interest.

If we’re talking about fixed penalty notices - like parking tickets, essentially - if we’re talking about that kind of resolution, then to take the rather grave step to delay a report that is going to shed public light on the subject matter of what may be a major public scandal, I think that is undesirable and I think it may be a misjudgment.

But only police know what it is that is really at play here.

It is really to say that if we are simply talking about lockdown breaches and fixed penalty notices, this move by the police this morning seems to be disproportionate.

Nazir Afzal, former chief prosecutor:

This is absolute nonsense from the Met police.

A purely factual report by Sue Gray cannot possibly prejudice a police investigation.

They just have to follow the evidence, of which the report will be a part.

Stitch-up. Whitewash.