Boris is ‘among more than 50 people to be quizzed by police over Partygate THIS WEEK’
Boris is ‘among more than 50 people to be quizzed by police over Partygate THIS WEEK’: Met launches Operation Hillman as chiefs review decision not to include Christmas ‘quiz’ after new picture shows the PM with champagne and crisps
Scotland Yard will begin contacting more than 50 people including Boris Johnson over Partygate this week New photograph said to show Prime Minister taking part in Christmas ‘virtual’ quiz at No10 emergedPicture shows the under-fire Tory leader and two aides with what appears to be bottle of champagneThe December 15, 2020, Downing Street quiz is not being probed by the police, Scotland Yard said
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Boris Johnson is expected to be among more than 50 people to be quizzed by Scotland Yard for allegedly taking part in suspected lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street and Whitehall during the pandemic this week, it has emerged.
Officers from Operation Hillman will send formal questionnaires to more than 50 people including those in No10, starting by the end of this week, in relation to eight dates that are being investigated between May 20, 2020 and April 16, 2021.
The Metropolitan Police said the Operation Hillman special inquiry team was continuing to examine more than 500 documents and 300 images provided to them by the Cabinet Office and would be seeking further information to assist their inquiry.
It warned that there may be a need to contact further people in the coming days and weeks should they be identified as having taken part in an event that potentially breached regulations.
Sue Gray’s interim report last week disclosed that police were investigating 12 different events in No10 and Whitehall over the course of 2020 and 2021 for possible Covid rule breaches. They include the notorious ‘BYOB’ event in the Downing Street garden in May 2020 attended by Mr Johnson and a gathering in the Prime Minister’s official flat that November.
A force spokesman said: ‘This document, which asks for an account and explanation of the recipient’s participation in an event, has formal legal status and must be answered truthfully.
‘Recipients are informed that responses are required within seven days. In most cases contact is being made via email.’
The Prime Minister’s Partygate drama deepened further today after it emerged police are reviewing whether a Christmas quiz at No10 may have breached virus restrictions after a picture emerged showing Mr Johnson and colleagues near an open bottle of sparkling wine.
Boris Johnson was today dragged deeper into the Partygate scandal after a new picture emerged of him allegedly attending a Downing Street Christmas quiz
The photograph showed Mr Johnson alongside three aides, one draped in tinsel, with what appears to be an open bottle of champagne on the table
Mr Johnson’s former chief aide Dominic Cummings responded to the picture by tweeting: ‘there’s waaaaay better pics than that floating around, incl in the flat’
Scotland Yard said that officers were reconsidering their previous assessment that the event on December 15, 2020 did not meet the threshold for criminal investigation after the new evidence emerged.
The Mirror published a photo showing the Prime Minister and three members of staff — one wearing tinsel and another in a Santa hat — near what appears to be an uncorked bottle of prosecco and an open bag of crisps.
Downing Street insists the event was a ‘virtual quiz’ and police had decided not to investigate it alongside 12 other events after being passed evidence from the Sue Gray inquiry into alleged lockdown breaches.
But the Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Wednesday: ‘The MPS previously assessed this event and determined that on the basis of the evidence available at that time, it did not meet the threshold for criminal investigation. That assessment is now being reviewed.’
The development suggests the latest image to surface was not among more than 300 passed to officers by the Whitehall investigation, and adds to the pressure on Mr Johnson after major Tory donor John Armitage suggested his leadership is past the point of no return.
Battling to stay in power in the face of Conservative unrest over partygate, Mr Johnson signalled to the Commons that laws requiring people in England with Covid-19 to self-isolate will be lifted within weeks.
But the Mirror publishing its latest photo during Prime Minister’s Questions prompted a challenge from shadow minister Fabian Hamilton.
The Labour MP said the image appears to show ‘one of the Christmas parties he told us never happened’, adding: ‘Will the Prime Minister be referring this party to the police as it is not one of the ones currently being investigated?’.
Mr Johnson responded: ‘In what he has just said, I’m afraid he is completely in error.’
Challenged again during PMQs, Mr Johnson added: ‘That event already has been submitted for investigation.’
Tory MP Neil Hudson called for all the evidence to be published to stem the ‘drip, drip, drip’ of alleged Covid breaches and ‘upsetting images’, in a sign the revelation was further damaging Conservatives’ view of Mr Johnson.
‘I’m incredibly disappointed and upset. Yet again I have to say that categorically I will not defend the indefensible,’ the Penrith and The Border MP told GB News.
‘I’m very clear that if rules have been broken, and indeed if the law has been broken, it doesn’t matter how serious you are, there has to be serious consequences.’
London was under Tier 2 restrictions at the time, which prohibited social mixing between different households indoors. Official guidance said: ‘Although there are exemptions for work purposes, you must not have a work Christmas lunch or party, where that is a primarily social activity and is not otherwise permitted by the rules in your tier.’
Miss Gray’s update on her inquiry revealed that police were investigating 12 events in Downing Street and wider government, but the ‘online Christmas quiz’ was not considered to have ‘reached the threshold for criminal investigation’.
Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s hostile former chief adviser, tweeted ‘there’s waaaaay better pics than that floating around’, including of inside Mr Johnson’s official Downing Street flat.
A separate image of the same quiz emerged in December but did not show any alcohol.
Adam Wagner, a human rights lawyer who has been examining Covid laws, said it ‘seems obvious’ from the new photo that Mr Johnson is ‘participating in a social gathering’.
The Prime Minister’s press secretary insisted the event was a ‘virtual quiz’ but was unable to say whether the photograph had been submitted to the Gray inquiry.
‘I’m not going to get into precise evidence but she obviously had access to all the evidence she needed,’ the press secretary said.
It came after Mr Armitage, who has given more than £3million to the Conservative Party, said leaders should quit if they lose their ‘moral authority’ and called ‘the lack of honour inherent in modern politics incredibly distressing’.
Asked by the BBC if he thinks Mr Johnson’s leadership is past the point of no return, the financier said: ‘Personally, yes.’
Labour MP Fabian Hamilton raised the photo in the House of Commons at PMQs at lunchtime
The Liberal Democrats said the new image confirms ‘what we already know — Boris Johnson is not fit to be Prime Minister’.
The party’s home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said: ‘These new images confirm what we already know — Boris Johnson is not fit to be Prime Minister.
‘The Met Police must add this to the long list of rule-breaking parties to investigate without delay.
‘Conservative MPs must also look themselves in the mirror and do the patriotic thing by calling on Boris Johnson to resign.
‘Everyday the Prime Minister stays in office is an insult to those who endured such hardship during the pandemic.’
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford claimed Mr Johnson was ‘staggering from one scandal to the next’ and said the PM’s position is ‘completely untenable’.
