Tag: partygate

Boris Johnson has called for the resignation of Sir Bernard Jenkin, following allegations that he breached Covid restrictions by attending a drinks party in the House of Commons for his wife’s birthday in December 2020…reports Asian Lite News

A long-awaited report by MPs investigating whether former Prime Minister Boris Johnson misled Parliament over Partygate is set to be published on Thursday. The report follows a year-long inquiry conducted by the Privileges Committee.

Prior to the report’s release, Johnson resigned as an MP after receiving an advance copy of the findings, claiming he had been deemed guilty “regardless of the facts.”

In a separate development, on Wednesday, Johnson called for the resignation of a committee member, Sir Bernard Jenkin, following allegations that he breached Covid restrictions by attending a drinks party in the House of Commons for his wife’s birthday in December 2020.

These allegations, first reported by the Guido Fawkes website, suggest that the gathering took place at a time when social mixing outside of households or support bubbles was banned in London.

A BBC report stated that it had been unable to independently verify the claims after contacting various individuals involved, Sir Bernard, Lady Jenkin, and the alleged party host have been approached for comment.

Sir Bernard originally denied attending any drinks parties during lockdown. When he was asked by a Guido Fawkes reporter whether he had a drink at the celebration of his wife’s birthday that evening, Sir Bernard is quoted as saying “I don’t recall”, the BBC reported.

Dame Eleanor Laing, the Deputy Speaker, who allegedly hosted the party, stated that she had sought guidance on the maximum number of people allowed in a room and had taken measures to ensure the safety of those working in the building.

In response to the allegations, Johnson has written to Harriet Harman, who chairs the inquiry, demanding clarification on whether she ensured that panel members had not attended similar events before the inquiry commenced. He accused Sir Bernard of “flagrant and monstrous hypocrisy” if the reports were true.

Few days ago in his resignation statement, Johnson described the committee as a “kangaroo court” whose purpose “from the beginning has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts”.

Johnson previously admitted misleading Parliament when he gave evidence to the committee in a combative hearing in March – but denied doing it on purpose.

Johnson said the committee “have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons”.

“They know perfectly well that when I spoke in the Commons I was saying what I believed sincerely to be true and what I had been briefed to say, like any other minister,” he said.

He said that social distancing had not been “perfect” at gatherings in Downing Street during Covid lockdowns but insisted the guidelines, as he understood them, were followed at all times.

Johnson was asked repeatedly by a cross-party parliamentary panel in March this year whether he attended parties, broke lockdown rules, misled Parliament, and should resign.

Johnson denied deliberately lying, but if found to have done so, he could face suspension or even lose his seat in Parliament.

He told the committee that the rule-breaking events were wrong and “I bitterly regret it,” but added, “hand on heart, that I did not lie to the House.”

A day after Johnson’s resignation, former Home Secretary Priti Patel praised the leader calling him as the UK’s “most electorally successful Prime Minister since Margaret Thatcher”.

“Boris Johnson has served our country and his constituency with distinction. He led the world in supporting Ukraine, got Brexit done, and was our most electorally successful Prime Minister since Margaret Thatcher. Boris is a political titan whose legacy will stand the test of time,” Patel tweeted.

British-Indians Patel and Kulveer Singh Ranger have been rewarded in Johnson’s honours list, which came hours before he stepped down as an MP.

Patel was named Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire, while Ranger, former director of transport, was elevated to the Lords.

Patel, 51, served as Home Secretary under Boris Johnson beginning July 2019, and tendered her resignation from the post in September 2022, just before the appointment of Liz Truss as Prime Minister.

The honours list, a tradition granted to outgoing Prime Ministers, included 38 honours and seven peerages, and was approved by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak nine months after Johnson stepped down as premier.

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Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said on Tuesday there had been no ministerial involvement in the passing on of the new alleged breaches…reports Asian Lite News

Former prime minister Boris Johnson has condemned the handling of fresh allegations of Covid lockdown rule-breaking as “bizarre and unacceptable”, as he faces a further possible probe into the “Partygate” scandal that helped push him from office.

It emerged on Tuesday that a government ministry had handed two police forces material about alleged violations of pandemic regulations.

Johnson, 58, was ousted as prime minister last summer following a revolt within his ruling party after months of accusations of lockdown infringements and other scandals.

He repeatedly denied in parliament, and elsewhere, that he or his staff had broken his own pandemic era restrictions by holding boozy gatherings in Downing Street.

But the Met issued fines to dozens of aides after a criminal probe, and Johnson became the first serving UK prime minister found to have broken the law, over one of the gatherings.

London’s Metropolitan Police has confirmed it is “assessing” new information it received over the last week related to “potential breaches” of the coronavirus rules in Downing Street between June 2020 and May 2021.

The information was passed on by the Cabinet Office, the government department responsible for supporting prime ministers and ensuring the effective running of government.

The ministry is currently preparing a public inquiry into the country’s pandemic response.

Johnson is also still being investigated by parliament’s Privileges Committee over whether he lied to MPs about “Partygate”, in a process that could ultimately trigger his removal as a lawmaker.

A statement issued by Johnson’s office, however, said his lawyers had written to police to “explain in detail why the Cabinet Office is entirely wrong in its assertions”.

“No contact was made with Mr Johnson before these incorrect allegations were made both to the police and to the Privileges Committee. This is both bizarre and unacceptable.

“For whatever political purpose, it is plain that a last-ditch attempt is being made to lengthen the Privileges Committee investigation as it was coming to a conclusion and to undermine Mr Johnson.”

The statement described the events in question as “entirely within the rules either because they were held outdoors or came within another lawful exception. They include regular meetings with civil servants and advisers”.

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said on Tuesday there had been no ministerial involvement in the passing on of the new alleged breaches.

“Material came to light which was passed to the civil service. The civil service considered that in accordance with their code, and with no ministerial intervention,” Chalk told LBC radio.

“Ultimately, whether it was the right judgement to do it turns on what’s in those documents. And I’ve not seen those documents,” he added.

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Gray’s interim report, critical of leadership failures, had triggered a police investigation under Scotland Yard’s Operation Hillman…reports Asian Lite News

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is on Wednesday preparing for the release of the long-anticipated partygate report into law-breaking parties at Downing Street, compiled by senior civil servant Sue Gray.

Gray’s interim report, critical of leadership failures, had triggered a police investigation under Scotland Yard’s Operation Hillman. That investigation concluded last week with 83 fines being issued for breach of coronavirus lockdown rules within government quarters, including one each for Johnson, wife Carrie and Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

It cleared the decks for the original Sue Gray report to be published in full, which is expected to be first handed over to Downing Street before Johnson addresses Parliament over its findings.

“It’s not just the optics, it’s understandable that people will feel anger because there were instances where people couldn’t attend funerals of close friends, couldn’t visit loved ones,” UK Environment Secretary George Eustice told the BBC, with reference to the breaches.

As well as his appearance in the House of Commons, Boris Johnson is also set to face a tough meeting of the powerful Tory backbench 1922 committee. After an initial uproar over partygate, most of his party MPs have fallen behind the party line against the backdrop of a soaring cost of living crisis and Russia-Ukraine conflict.

However, the issue has been reignited as the BBC’s ‘Panorama’ programme aired footage of Downing Street insiders speaking anonymously of a boozy culture throughout the lockdown.

Three “insiders” told the documentary of chaotic, crowded gatherings at the heart of government in which people sat on others’ laps in complete disregard of the social distancing rules and rooms were left strewn with bottles of alcohol. One of the BBC’s sources said they felt such “parties” were licensed by the UK PM as he was there and did not demand it be shut down.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan is among Opposition Labour leaders calling for an explanation from the Metropolitan Police why the Prime Minister was only fined for a birthday party in June 2020 and not handed a second fine for another party after pictures emerged of him holding up a glass at a farewell drinks party on November 13, 2020. The rules in force at the time banned indoor gatherings of two or more people, except if “reasonably necessary” for work purposes.

Downing Street has said that Johnson would address Parliament “in full” after Gray published her report into the gatherings.

Johnson on Tuesday faced renewed accusations of lying, after photos emerged of him drinking at a Downing Street gathering during lockdown in 2020.

The revelations came as a senior civil servant was expected to publish her long-awaited full report into the “Partygate” scandal, despite allegations that Johnson was trying to have it dropped.

A slew of revelations earlier this year about lockdown-breaking parties caused widespread political and public anger, and put Johnson’s position in jeopardy.

But the heat was taken out of a potential mutiny from his own MPs by the war in Ukraine and his hawkish support for President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The photos published late on Monday by ITV News were taken during a leaving event for Johnson’s communications director Lee Cain on November 13, 2020, days after the government ordered a second Covid lockdown and banned households from mixing.

Johnson can be seen raising a glass and chatting with several people around a table with bottles of wine and food.

Police have investigated the leaving event as part of their probe into “Partygate” and fined one person — but not Johnson.

When he was asked in parliament last December about the gathering, the prime minister insisted there had been no party on that date and that no rules had been broken.

The police did fine Johnson over a surprise birthday party he attended at Downing Street in June 2020, but he has not been fined for any other event.

In total, they issued more than 100 fines related to multiple gatherings in an around the prime minister’s residence and place of work.

The BBC’s Panorama programme on Tuesday quoted people who attended Cain’s leaving party as saying it developed into “about 30 people, if not more, in a room. Everyone was stood shoulder to shoulder, some people (sitting) on each other’s laps.”

The event was on a Friday, when the prime minister’s press office organised regular “WTF” (“Wine-Time Friday”) drinks starting at four o’clock in the afternoon, some of the people who attended told the BBC.

A Downing Street security guard was mocked when he tried to stop a party in full flow, they said.

“People made fun of him because he was so worked up that this party was happening and it shouldn’t be happening.”

The deputy leader of the main opposition Labour party, Angela Rayner, said it was “astonishing” that Johnson was not fined for the November gathering.

She told ITV News that it looked “pretty clear” the gathering had been a party, not a work event. She said it was “pretty shocking” Johnson had not been fined for it.

“He’s tried to lie to the British public and he’s tried to lie to parliament,” Rayner said.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps sought to defend Johnson on Tuesday, saying the new pictures showed the prime minister was “clearly not” partying.

“It looks to me he was asked to go and thank a member of staff who was leaving, raises a glass to them and I imagine comes in and out pretty quick, which is presumably why the police have not issued a fixed-penalty notice (fine) to the prime minister,” Shapps told BBC radio.

In a separate development, the Times newspaper reported on Tuesday that Johnson had put pressure on civil servant Sue Gray to drop her much-anticipated report on “Partygate”.

Sky News quoted sources as saying Johnson had questioned what more would be left to say in Gray’s report after the police concluded their work.

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While the force does not reveal the identity of those issued with fines, Downing Street has previously confirmed that Boris Johnson, his wife Carrie and Chancellor Rishi Sunak were among those fined for a birthday party in the Cabinet Room for the British Prime Minister in June 2020..reports Asian Lite News

Scotland Yard said on Thursday that the police investigation into alleged breaches of COVID-19 lockdown regulations at the UK government offices in Downing Street and Whitehall under Operation Hillman has been completed.

The Metropolitan Police said the total number of referrals for fixed penalty notices (FPNs), or fines, in the so-called partygate scandal, stands at 126 and they relate to events between May 2020 and April 2021.

While the force does not reveal the identity of those issued with fines, Downing Street has previously confirmed that Boris Johnson, his wife Carrie and Chancellor Rishi Sunak were among those fined for a birthday party in the Cabinet Room for the British Prime Minister in June 2020.

“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,” said Helen Ball, Acting Deputy Commissioner for the Met Police.

“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,” she said.

The criteria used by the force to consider such a “retrospective investigation” was that: 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.

“We will not be releasing or confirming the identity of anyone involved in this investigation or providing further details of our findings, in line with the approach we’ve taken throughout the pandemic,” the Met Police said.

The breakdown of those sanctioned was revealed as 53 men and 73 women, with some receiving more than one fines – which are set on a gradation scale, starting at GBP 100 and rising to GBP 300.

Such fines or fixed penalty notices are a sanction for breaking the law and mean a fine needs to be paid within 28 days unless contested. If someone chooses to contest the fine, the police will then review the case and decide whether to withdraw the fine or take the matter to court. The amount of the fine gets halved if paid early without a legal challenge, as done by Johnson and Sunak.

“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 Met said

The force said it deployed a team of 12 detectives working through 345 documents, including emails, door logs, diary entries and witness statements, 510 photographs and CCTV images and 204 questionnaires as part of a careful and thorough enquiry.

Each line of enquiry looked at the date, the circumstances behind each event, and the actions of the individual, benchmarked against the legislation at that time, to establish whether their behaviour met the criminal threshold for an FPN referral to be made.

There were a string of gatherings under the police scanner to determine whether there was a breach of the law, which at the time imposed a strict ban on social gatherings with anyone outside your own household to control the spread of coronavirus.

The conclusion of the police investigation clears the way for top civil servant Sue Gray’s report into the partygate scandal, which posed a major challenge to Johnson’s leadership earlier this year, to be published in full.

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