Fines for Downing Street BYO booze bash start to arrive
POLICE have reportedly started issuing No10 officials with fines for the Downing Street “bring your own booze” garden party which Boris Johnson attended.
Fixed penalty notices have started landing in staff inboxes over the lockdown-busting event on May 20, 2020, according to ITV.
The Metropolitan Police will not publicise fines in the run-up to the May 5 local elections but No10 said it would reveal if the PM receives another fine before then.
A Downing Street source said last night that Mr Johnson had not yet had a fixed penalty notice over the bash.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said: “Boris Johnson must immediately declare if he has been given another fine – no more cover-ups, no more lies. The scale of the criminality at No10 under Johnson’s Conservatives is truly breathtaking.”
Tory peer Lord Hayward, an elections expert, said he believes the PM will be toppled over Partygate.
He added: “The mood has turned against the Prime Minister.
“I expect there will be some form of contest for leadership at some stage... Support for the Prime Minister is being eroded quite markedly.”
Tory MP Tobias Ellwood said he thinks the PM will eventually have to face a confidence vote. Mr
Ellwood, who chairs the Commons Defence Select Committee, called on fellow Conservative MPs to force a change of leadership.
He added: “All MPs are deeply troubled by this problem of what to do given the way he himself has brought the party over the last couple of years, but the issues, the challenge, just won’t go away...
“I fear it is now ‘when’ not ‘if’ a vote of confidence takes place. “Sadly, the absence of discipline, of focus, of leadership in No10 has led to this breach of trust with the British people and it is causing long-term damage to the party’s brand – and that’s proving difficult to repair.”
Several other highprofile Tories have called for Mr Johnson to resign.
If the chairman of the party’s 1922 Committee receives 54 letters from Tory MPs demanding a confidence vote, a ballot must be triggered.
In New Delhi, Mr Johnson went off on a bizarre rant about “kicking cats” as he tried to fend off questions about his political future.
Asked whether he is a “cat with nine lives”, the Prime Minister replied: “Talking about cats, we had a pretty good kick of the cat yesterday.
“Not that I’m in favour of kicking cats, for the avoidance of all doubt.”
Northern Ireland Minister Conor Burns, a key ally of the PM, has insisted Mr Johnson will not quit.
Mr Burns said: “There are a number of colleagues across Parliament who have never really supported the Prime Minister.
“If the Prime Minister stepped off Westminster Bridge and walked on top of the water they would say he couldn’t swim. That is a fact.”
The mood has turned against the Prime Minister
TORY PEER LORD HAYWARD’S WARNING