Questions for whatever government mouthpiece next appears in front of a journalist - 1

Image: Daily Express
"Boris Johnson squares up to Vladimir Putin
as he vows to stand up to
'Russian aggression'"

1. Do you accept that Dominic Grieve, the former chair of Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, believes that the Russia Report should have been published before the election campaign?

2. Do you accept that Jonathan Evans, former head of MI5, Peter Ricketts, former National Security Adviser, David Anderson, former reviewer of terrorism legislation and Robin Butler, former head of the civil service, all agree with him?

3. Do you accept that the report was submitted to the security services and the Cabinet Office in March of this year, that the scrutiny and redaction process was complete by early October, when "the agencies and the national security secretariat indicated that they were happy that the published form would not damage any operational capabilities of the agencies", and that the report was sent to the Prime Minister on 17 October for "final confirmation"?

4. Do you accept that a report from the Intelligence and Security Committee - as with reports from an ordinary select committee - does not require a response from government before it is published?

5. So why was the report not published on 5 November?