The Westminster edict that fell on deaf ears at No 10

THE party’s over for illegal parties. So said Westminster Council to its residents in Central London.

In an email sent out in January last year, it said: ‘Rulebreakers have driven a rise in illegal gatherings and pop-up nightclubs across the city, ignoring essential public health guidance and putting local communities at risk.’

The council described a recent bust where people were found ‘drinking, smoking and partying’ with a ‘DJ set-up’ where the DJ was fined £10,000 and their equipment confiscated while revellers were made to pay £200 each.

However, some Westminster residents clearly felt they were exempt.

The day after the email, on January 14, a Mr B Johnson, of 10 Downing Prosecco Street, gave a leaving speech for two colleagues during a boozy get-together.

Similarly, a ‘DJ setup’ was playing there on the night before Prince Philip’s funeral.

Such disrespect didn’t deter Tory-controlled Westminster Council from scaring the living daylights out of less special residents on a regular basis.

In another email, it told how 29 people had been found ‘in clear violation of lockdown measures and public health guidance’.

They were given £800 fixed penalties by the police.

All of which is to say that the Partygate Plod would do well speaking to independently minded official Nicholas Howard who, in October 2021, when answering a Freedom of Information Act request about how much the PM’s Office had spent on booze, said: ‘No receptions were held at which alcohol was served in 2020.’

A separate FOI request queried the ‘total cost of alcohol supplied to No 10 since January 1, 2021’. Howard replied two weeks ago: ‘We do not hold recorded information in scope of your specific request.’

Bodes well for the police’s 50 questionnaires being sent out to party attendees…

CABINET karaoke fan Therese Coffey – notoriously seen murdering a hit from Dirty Dancing the night before her Work & Pensions department scrapped the Universal Credit uplift – is now throwing shapes on the dancefloor. Sources at last week’s Brit Awards tell me Coffey introduced herself to fellow revellers as the ‘Twerk and Pensions Minister’. Gulp.