The Metropolitan Police has begun to roll out the first fixed-penalty fines in connection with the lockdown parties that took place between 2020 and 2022.
But so far Prime Minister Boris Johnson has not been given one, says Downing Street.
The Prime Minister was one of 100 people asked by the Met to fill in a questionnaire about his involvement in the alleged parties, which broke Covid-19 regulations in place at the time.
His official spokesperson told journalists this afternoon “we’ve said we will update if” he is found to have broken the law, reports City AM.
The partygate scandal saw a number of illegal gatherings take place at both Downing Street and Whitehall whilst the rest of the country was under striction restrictions that forbid social mixing between households.
Today, the Met has issued the first wave of fines for those involved.
It’s understood they apply to more straight-forward cases, and the Prime Minister is not included – something that has been confirmed this afternoon by Downing Street.
Boris Johnson is expected to be at the ‘bottom of the pile’, The Mirror has reported, due to the ‘politically explosive’ nature of his case.
The Met Police have been investigating 12 gatherings that took place during Covid lockdowns, in breach of the Government’s own regulations and guidance, reports The Manc.
Officers say they are ‘making every effort to progress this investigation at speed’.
This first wave of penalties from the Met confirms that the rules were broken by Downing Street staff members.
A statement issued this morning says: “We will today initially begin to refer 20 fixed penalty notices to be issued for breaches of Covid-19 regulations.
“We are making every effort to progress this investigation at speed and have completed a number of assessments. However due to the significant amount of investigative material that remains to be assessed, further referrals may be made to ACRO if the evidential threshold is made.”
A previously-published report by Sue Gray found that there were ‘failures of leadership and judgment’.
Gray’s report looked into 2020 events on 15 May, 20 May, 18 June, 19 June, 13 November, 27 November, 10 December, 15 December, 17 December and 18 December, as well as events on 14 January 2021 and 16 April 2021.
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons
