More than 100 fixed-penalty notices have now been handed out for breaches of lockdown rules in Downing Street and Whitehall, the Metropolitan police have announced.
The force previously said it had issued more than 50 such penalties, but it had not updated the public on the progress of its investigation in recent weeks while the local election campaign was taking place.
In a brief statement on Thursday, it said the total had reached that twice. The investigation, which covers 12 separate events, is ongoing.
Asked about the latest figures as he arrived for a cabinet meeting in Stoke-on-Trent on Thursday, Johnson said he was “sure we’ll have plenty to say about that when the thing’s finished”.
It is understood one of the gatherings for which penalties have begun to be issued is the cheese and wine party that No 10 aides were filmed joking about.
In the leaked footage of a press briefing rehearsal, from December 2020, Johnson’s then director of communications, Allegra Stratton, was seen struggling to answer the question of whether a Christmas party had taken place. One colleague suggests: “It wasn’t a party, it was cheese and wine.” Stratton resigned after the video was made public.
Downing Street confirmed the prime minister had still received one fixed-penalty notice, for a birthday party in June 2020.
His wife, Carrie Johnson, and the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, received notices for the same event.
Boris Johnson has told friends he believes he will not receive further penalties, and said publicly last week he had not yet been sent a questionnaire from the Met about the leaving do of his aid Lee Cain, at which he is believed to have poured drinks.
Several sources have suggested a separate party was held on the same night, hosted by Carrie Johnson upstairs in the No 10 flat, at which Abba was played loudly. Johnson is expected to argue that while he was present at that gathering, it was only to interview a possible candidate for a job.
Some fixed-penalty notices have already been issued for the “bring your own booze” garden drinks organized by Johnson’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, on 20 May 2020. Johnson admitted attending that gathering for a few minutes but said he believed it was a work event. The cabinet secretary, Simon Case, has not yet received a penalty, Downing Street has indicated.
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The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, responding to the Met’s statement, said: “Boris Johnson stood up in parliament and said Covid rules were followed in No 10 at all times. Now a shocking 100 fines have been issued by the police over Partygate. It shows the scale of the law-breaking in Johnson’s Downing Street and the extent of his lies with him.”
Even before this latest update, polling carried out by YouGov suggested 80% of the public believe Johnson has lied about Partygate, while just 8% think he has told the truth.
Many Conservative MPs are awaiting the publication of the senior civil servant Sue Gray’s full report on lockdown breaches in Downing Street, before deciding whether to move against the prime minister.
So far, the Cabinet Office has only published a wall down version of her findings, after she paused her work while the Met investigation took place.
Johnson also faces an investigation by the House of Commons privileges committee into whether he misled parliament by reassuring MPs when the Partygate stories first emerged that “all guidance was followed completely” in Downing Street.
Durham police said last week they would investigate claims Keir Starmer broke lockdown rules by eating a takeaway curry at a campaign event last year.
The Labor leader, a former director of public prosecutions, said on Monday he was confident no rules were broken, and that he would resign if issued with a fixed-penalty notice.
www.theguardian.com
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism