TORY BAILEY DID NOT BAIL OUT OF RAUCOUS PARTY
Yard probe Covid rules ‘breaches’
TORY Shaun Bailey stayed at Conservative HQ till at least 10pm the night of a raucous Christmas party now being probed by police for allegedly breaking Covid rules.
Mr Bailey this week claimed he was briefly at the event on December 14, 2020, stopping to give a short speech and pose for an “infamous” snap before leaving “to appear on Newsnight”.
On Friday Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, in charge of investigating parties at No10 and across Whitehall, quit after it emerged his department had also held a bash last Christmas.
Earlier in the week the Daily Mirror published a photograph of Mr Bailey, Tory candidate in this year’s London mayoral election, at the party – held as the capital was under Tier 2 regulations.
He was shown with 24 others in a small basement room of Conservative Campaign HQ, where there was wine and a buffet. Scotland Yard confirmed
officers would be “making contact with two people who attended in relation to alleged breaches” of Covid rules.
Mr Bailey’s Newsnight appearance was pre-recorded that evening.
The Sunday Mirror was told he had an interview at 6.20pm, before the party began, and a second one at 9pm.
A source said one interview was held remotely from CCHQ and the Newsnight clip was shot at BBC’s studio nine minutes’ walk away.
Mr Bailey, the source added, went back to CCHQ and stayed till at least
10pm then spent the night in a hotel. The Tory Party said: “We utterly condemn this unauthorised party put on by the Bailey campaign and have taken disciplinary action against staff involved.”
Mr Bailey quit his role on London Assembly’s policing committee after the Mirror told his team of the photo but still sits as an Assembly member.
He has apologised online for attending the lockdown-busting party.