The police investigation into lockdown breaking parties at Downing Street is complete, with 126 fixed penalty notices issued, the Metropolitan Police has said.
Boris Johnson has escaped the Met’s investigation without receiving a further fine, Downing Street has confirmed.
The Prime Minister’s wife Carrie Johnson has also not received another fixed penalty notice (FPN) for her behaviour in the so-called Partygate scandal.
The both received a fixed penalty notice for attending a birthday gathering for the PM at 10 Downing Street on 19 June 2020, alongside Chancellor Rishi Sunak. At the time people were banned from meeting those from other households indoors under Covid laws.
The Met said that the 126 FPNs issued relate to events held on eight dates between May 2020 and April 2021, on May 20, June 18 and 19, November 13 and December 17 and 18 in 2020 and January 14 and April 16 in 2021.
The fines have been handed to 83 people, 53 were issued to 35 men and 73 to 48 women. A total of 28 people received between two and five fines. The police did not confirm the identity of any of those involved.
Detectives examined 345 documents, including 510 photographs, emails, door logs, diary entries, CCTV, witness statements and 204 questionnaires in what it described as “a careful and thorough enquiry”, Scotland Yard said.
Met Police says it has issued fines relating to events on eight dates:
20 May 2020: The ‘Bring Your Own Booze’ Downing Street garden party took place that Boris Johnson’s former principal private secretary Martin Reynolds invited around 100 employees to.
18 June 2020: A Cabinet Office gathering marked the departure of No 10 private secretary.
19 June 2020: The Prime Minister’s birthday gathering in the Cabinet room for which we know Mr Johnson, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Mr Johnson’s wife Carrie received fines.
13 November 2020: Two gatherings were under investigation by the Met. One was a drinks party in Downing Street for Lee Cain, who was leaving his post as the No 10 director of communications.
A second gathering was alleged to have taken place in the No 11 flat where the Prime Minister and Carrie Johnson are reported to have been present and Abba music was played. It was also the day Dominic Cummings left No 10.
17 December 2020: Three events on this date were under investigation. These include a Christmas quiz in the private office of the Cabinet Secretary, Simon Case, a leaving drinks for officials in the Cabinet Office and a leaving drinks for the departure of a No 10 official.
18 December 2020: A Downing Street Christmas party was held, where staff are alleged to have exchanged secret Santa presents.
14 January 2021: A gathering took place to make the departure of two No 10 private secretaries.
16 April 2021: Two separate leaving parties were held for James Slack, who was the PM’s official spokesperson, and a Downing Street photographer. Officials brought wine into No 10 in a suitcase.
These parties were heavily criticised as they were held the night before the Queen sat alone at Prince Philip’s funeral.
The fine handed to Mr Johnson for the 19 June event made him the UK’s first serving prime minister to be sanctioned for breaking the law.
Attention now turns to senior civil servant Sue Gray, who is yet to release the full version of her report into Partygate. She was forced to delay the publication of the document after the Metropolitan Police announced they were launching their own inquiry into the allegations.
In an interim version of the report, published in January, Ms Gray said the parties held at No 10 represented “failures of leadership and judgement”.
The publication of Ms Gray’s full report threatens an avalanche of letters of no confidence in the PM, with a recent report claiming Mr Johnson will have no choice but to resign as the findings are so damning.
Ms Gray’s inquiry examined 16 alleged gatherings and her January report confirmed that the Met was investigating 12 of these. At the time, she said she would not be publishing her full report so as not to “prejudice” the continuing police investigation.
“Unfortunately… I am extremely limited in what I can say,” she said.
In February, over 100 questionnaires were issued by the Met to those who were understood to have partied in No 10 during Covid lockdowns. Those handed a form were asked to provide a reasonable excuse for their attendance.
What the police investigation involved?
A team of 12 detectives examined 345 documents, including emails, door logs, diary entries, witness statements and 204 questionnaires in what it described as “a careful and thorough enquiry”, Scotland Yard said.
They also examined 510 photographs and CCTV images.
The Met said that it would not routinely investigate historic breaches of Covid regulations for two reasons:
- It could not retrospectively engage and inform those involved that they were breaching the rules
- As these were summary-only offences, the force did not judge it a proportionate use of officers’ time
But police determined Partygate to be an exception, based on three criteria:
- There was evidence that those involved knew or ought to have known that what they were doing was an offence;
- Where not investigating would significantly undermine the legitimacy of the law and;
- Where there was little ambiguity around the absence of any reasonable defence.
The Met launched an investigation on 25 January 2022.
“We took great care to ensure that for each referral we had the necessary evidence to prosecute the FPN at court, were it not paid,” the force said.
The Met’s Acting Deputy Commissioner Helen Ball said: “There is no doubt that the pandemic impacted all of us in so many ways and strong feelings and opinions have been expressed on this particular issue.
“When Covid regulations were introduced, the Met was clear that whilst we would not routinely investigate breaches of regulations retrospectively, there may be occasions when it would be appropriate to do so.
“The information that we received with regard to the alleged breaches in Downing Street and Whitehall was sufficient to reach our criteria to begin such an investigation.
“Our investigation was thorough and impartial and was completed as quickly as we could, given the amount of information that needed to be reviewed and the importance of ensuring that we had strong evidence for each FPN referral.
“This investigation is now complete.”
