Met police won’t investigate alleged No 10 lockdown party
The Metropolitan police will not investigate alleged parties held at Downing Street in apparent breach of lockdown rules unless an upcoming inquiry finds evidence of criminality.
The force said it did not normally investigate breaches of coronavirus regulations “long after they are said to have taken place”.
The senior civil servant Sue Gray is investigating allegations of parties held at Downing Street while the UK was in lockdown due to Covid-19. The force added that if this showed criminality took place then the police force would “reconsider” its stance.
On Wednesday, the prime minister, Boris Johnson, admitted attending a gathering at 10 Downing Street on 20 May 2020, during the height of the first UK coronavirus lockdown. An estimated 100 people were invited, with about 30 believed to have attended. Johnson said he was there for 25 minutes.
When the event took place, parties were banned and people were not able to see friends or family, even those unwell in hospital.
A spokesperson for the Met said the force was “aware of widespread reporting relating to alleged breaches of the health protection regulations at Downing Street and Department for Education on various dates and has received correspondence in relation to this reporting”.
It added: “The Met has ongoing contact with the Cabinet Office in relation to its inquiry. If the inquiry identifies evidence of behaviour that is potentially a criminal offence it will be passed to the Met for further consideration.”
An inquiry announced by the prime minister and led by Gray will also look into a party allegedly held in No 10 when London was in tier 3 restrictions, which banned social events. Several dozen people – a mix of civil service and political staff – reportedly attended and were told to bring “secret Santa” presents, with cheese and wine laid on.
The Met has previously been criticised for not taking action and “deferring to the powerful” against parties that took place.
The Good Law Project has already started legal proceedings over the Met’s refusal to investigate reports of the Christmas party on 18 December 2020.
The campaign group said that in letters between it and the Met, police said they had “relied on the government’s assurances that no rules had been broken” and “there would have been no point in interviewing No 10 staff about the parties because they would have refused to answer questions that exposed them to a risk of prosecution”.
Jolyon Maugham, the director of the Good Law Project, said: “You can have the rule of law, or you can defer to the powerful. But you can’t have both. Cressida Dick’s cat will know that multiple criminal offences were committed. It shames the Met, and ultimately all of us, that she refuses to investigate.”
Police officers who saw laws broken while on guard duty at Downing Street would be expected to report it, the former Scotland Yard police chief Robert Quick said this week.
He said: “The garden at Downing Street would be monitored by police officers. You would have thought the police would be reasonably aware of what was going on there.”
Asked if officers could be told by their bosses to prioritise their protective duties and ignore the law, Quick said: “You could not give that advice to a police officer.”
The Green party peer Lady Jones said the invitation to the May 2020 garden party, sent by Johnson’s top aide, Martin Reynolds, was troubling. “This garden party raises big questions for the Met police, as their officers must surely have monitored this gathering via their security cameras and been aware of the rules in place at the time,” she said.
“The police are losing public trust with their attitude that there are lots of rules for us and no rules for Conservative ministers. Did Martin Reynolds consult with Met police officers about the Covid restrictions, or inform them of the event?”