The Metropolitan Police has launched a new probe into alleged lockdown-breaking parties in No 10 and other official residences during the pandemic.
The force issued an update on Monday saying it was “assessing information and new material” over gatherings in 2020 and 2021.
A spokesperson told i that the probe remains preliminary in nature, but that officers are assessing new information “to see if there is enough there to launch a criminal investigation”.
It includes new details a “jingle and mingle” Christmas party held by Conservative Party staff in December 2020, after video footage emerged last week of attendees dancing, drinking and joking about “bending the rules”.
During the video, obtained by the Mirror, two members of staff can be seen crashing into a buffet table stacked with food and wine glasses, while another attendee can be heard saying: “As long as we don’t stream that we’re, like, bending the rules.”
The Met Police insisted it was not handed the video footage when it previously investigated the event last year as part of its probe into Downing Street parties, known as Operation Hillman.
Scotland Yard decided at the time to take no action against attendees of the gathering, which included Shaun Bailey – a former London mayoral candidate who received a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours earlier this month.
But Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Police Commissioner, suggested that action is now likely to be taken over the footage, as he claimed it painted a more damning picture of the event.
“It’s very obvious a video tells a much richer, clearer story than a photo. And so, the team are looking at that with a view to whether that provides a basis for further investigation,” he told the News Agents podcast.
“I think we can all see the colourful nature of the video and how much it tells a story way beyond the original photo. I need to let the team work through that but I think we can all guess which way it will go.”
The Met Police is also investigating fresh allegations of rule-breaking in Downing Street and at the Prime Minister’s Chequers countryside retreat in June 2020 and May 2021.
It is thought to relate to Mr Johnson’s official diary entries that were being reviewed ahead of the Covid inquiry, which the Cabinet Office handed over to the police amid concerns over rule-breaking.
Scotland Yard will also investigate media reports of “alleged breaches in Parliament” after receiving a report to the Met Police last Thursday.
The complaint is understood to relate to alleged rule-breaking by Tory MP Sir Bernard Jenkin, who was one of the cross-party MPs to head the Privileges Committee report into whether Mr Johnson misled Parliament over “Partygate”.
Sir Bernard is alleged to have attended a drinks party held by Commons Deputy Speaker, Dame Eleanor Laing, in December 2020, while London was in tier 2 measures restricting indoor mixing, according to reports by political blog Guido Fawkes.
In a statement provided to the blog site, Mr Johnson said that if true, Sir Bernard was “guilty of flagrant and monstrous hypocrisy”.
A police probe into one of the seven MPs to oversee the excoriating Privileges Committee report into Mr Johnson will possibly energise allies of the former prime minister, who has already dismissed it as a “political assassination” by a “kangaroo court”.
It threatens to cast Partygate into the spotlight once more, despite assumptions the Privileges Committee report would mark a close to the long-running saga.
In its statement on Monday, the Met Police insisted its previous investigation into alleged lockdown-breaking in No 10 was undertaken “proportionately, impartially and without fear or favour”.
It noted the investigation resulted in 126 Fixed Penalty Notices relating to 83 individuals, including for both Mr Johnson and Rishi Sunak.
The force added that fresh investigations are only launched retrospectively where there is “evidence of a serious and flagrant breach” and it is proportionate, those involved did know or ought to have known they were breaking the rules.
“It would not be appropriate to prejudge the outcome of these assessments or to provide a running commentary on their progress,” the Met Police said in a statement.
