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London’s Metropolitan Police will issue the first 20 fines on Tuesday in relation to gatherings that broke coronavirus regulations in Whitehall and Downing Street in the “partygate” scandal, the force has confirmed.
The Met has been investigating more than a dozen gatherings in 2020 and 2021 that broke Covid-19 restrictions, including at 10 Downing Street and 70 Whitehall, where the Cabinet Office is based. An internal civil service investigation, led by senior official Sue Gray, was paused when the police opened its inquiries in February.
On Tuesday, the police said in a statement that it would “today initially begin to refer 20 fixed penalty notices to be issued for breaches of Covid-19 regulations”.
The force said it would not name those who have been penalised. “We will not confirm the number of referrals from each individual event subject to our investigation as providing a breakdown at this point may lead to identification of the individuals.”
Downing Street has yet to comment on the police announcement but has suggested it would announce if Boris Johnson, the prime minister, was fined. But it has declined to say whether it would confirm if other senior civil servants or government figures received penalties.
Fines will be delivered to people individually in coming days, according to those with knowledge of the process. Officials are not under any obligation to inform their employers if they are fined.
Simon Case, head of the civil service, is confident he will not be fined in the first wave of penalty notices, according to several allies. Mr Case was leading an internal investigation into the parties but was forced to recuse himself after reports emerged of a gathering held in his private office.
The fines will pose a challenge for Mr Johnson, who has insisted that coronavirus restrictions were followed by his staff. The prime minister told the BBC last year that “all the guidelines were observed” and followed “at all times”.
Calls to quit
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, on Tuesday called on Mr Johnson to take responsibility for the fines as “the culture is set from the very top” and reiterated the party’s calls for him to resign.
“The buck stops with the prime minister, who spent months lying to the British public, which is why he’s got to go. It is disgraceful that while the rest of the country followed their rules, Boris Johnson’s government acted like they didn’t apply to them.”
Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, also said that Mr Johnson was responsible for the fines. “If Boris Johnson thinks he can get away with partygate by paying expensive lawyers and throwing junior staff to the wolves, he is wrong. We all know who is responsible.”
Senior Whitehall officials said further rounds of fines are expected, which are likely to cover the more contentious allegations of those who allegedly broke lockdown rules. “The first round covers the most blatant cases,” one official said.
The Met said further fines may be issued “if the evidential threshold is made” but noted the “significant amount of investigative material”, including more than 300 images. “We are making every effort to progress this investigation at speed and have completed a number of assessments,” it said.
Adam Wagner, a barrister who specialises in coronavirus restrictions, said that “anyone who receives a fixed penalty notice is someone who the police believe has committed a criminal offence”. He added that there was no formal mechanism for appealing against such notices. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2022