The Metropolitan Police inquiry into the parties which allegedly broke lockdown regulations has led to 20 fines being issued to attendees.
The Metropolitan Police have been investigating 12 parties alleged to have been in breach of lockdown rules. The ongoing inquiry has now led to 20 fixed penalty notices being issued to party-goers, although the Met has refused to name and shame those who are to be issued with a fine, nor will they announce which parties led to the fines.
Downing Street has previously said that it would announce if a fine was sent to the Prime Minister. Johnson is suspected of having attended up to 6 of the alleged parties.
Recipients of the fines will have 28 days to pay or contest the fines.
A police spokesperson said:
“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.”
Meanwhile, after a brief ceasefire to project unity in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, opposition parties have resumed calls for the Prime Minister to resign.
Deputy Labour Leader Angela Raynor said:
“I think it’s important the support that we’ve given to the Ukrainian people, and we’ve been very clear in supporting the government in that and I think that’s a very serious situation and that it’s right that we’ve been united on that.”
“But that doesn’t negate the prime minister from lying to the British public and if he thinks it does then he’s sadly mistaken.”
“The culture is set from the very top. The buck stops with the prime minister, who spent months lying to the British public, which is why he’s got to go.”
Leader of the Lib Dems Ed Davey said:
“If Boris Johnson thinks he can get away with Partygate by paying expensive lawyers and throwing junior staff to the wolves, he is wrong. We all know who is responsible. The prime minister must resign, or Conservative MPs must sack him.”
Deputy Leader of the SNP in the House of Commons, Kirsten Oswald, also called on Johnson to resign, along with calling on the Met to ignore ‘recommended best practice’ and publicise the names of those receiving fines. Oswald said:
“This damning development once again highlights the scale of rule-breaking at the heart of Boris Johnson’s corrupt government.”
“While the public were following the rules imposed upon us all and making difficult sacrifices to protect each other, Boris Johnson and his Tory colleagues were breaking them without a care.”
“Boris Johnson should have resigned a long time ago over the boozy rule-breaking parties, but his ego and lack of dignity led him to desperately cling on.”
“The reality is that the longer he stays in office the more lasting the damage will be.”
