Rishi Sunak news – live: Met Police reopen investigation into new Partygate allegations

Issuing a statement about the new investigation into potential Covid breaches in December 2020, Metropolitan police said: “The Met and Thames Valley Police have assessed new material in relation to potential breaches of Covid Regulations in 2020 and 2021. The Met will be opening one investigation and re-opening a previous investigation.

“The approach to the assessment of these events has been consistent, enforcing the law carefully, thoroughly, proportionately, impartially and without fear or favour.

“The Met has previously published criteria for assessing when to launch investigations into breaches of the Regulations reported retrospectively.”

The force added it would only do so when there was evidence of a “serious and flagrant” breach of the rules and said it would provide further updates at an “appropriate time”.

Addressing the material it had been referred to over Boris Johnson’s time in Chequers and Downing Street, the Met said it had assessed the events alongside Thames Valley and found they did “not meet the retrospective criteria” for opening an investigation.

The Metropolitan police had previously investigated the “jingle and mingle” event organised at Conservative Party’s campaign headquarters on 14 December 2020 but decided there was “insufficient evidence” to take further action.

Both former London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey and Tory aide Ben Mallett – who were handed a peerage and an OBE respectively in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours – attended the gathering.

In a clip published by the Mirror last month, Conservative Party staff appear to dance, drink and joke about Covid restrictions.
Mr Bailey, who remains a London Assembly Member, resigned as chairman of the governing body’s Police and Crime Committee after the picture emerged.

The Met issued 126 fines over rule breaches in Whitehall and Downing Street while Mr Johnson was prime minister, in a scandal that helped end his tenure in No 10.

Mr Johnson and his then-chancellor Rishi Sunak paid fixed-penalty notices over a gathering held for Mr Johnson’s 56th birthday.

Sir Bernard Jenkins has refused to issue a statement on the ongoing probe looking into 8 December 2020 “birthday drinks”.

“It is not appropriate to comment on a continuing investigation,” he said.

The 8 December 2020 “birthday drinks” are said to have been arranged by Commons deputy speaker Dame Eleanor Laing while London was in Tier 2 measures that restricted indoor socialising.

A spokeswoman for the speaker’s office said: “As this is a live investigation any further inquiries should be directed to the Met Police.”

According to PA news agency, Dame Eleanor will not be stepping down as deputy speaker while the investigation continues.

The Metropolitan Police launched a new probe into an event in parliament on 8 December 2020, when privileges committee member Sir Bernard Jenkin is reported to have attended a “birthday drinks” event for his wife in parliament.

The 8 December gathering was cited by Boris Johnson in a scathing statement accusing Sir Bernard of “monstrous hypocrisy” for allegedly attending the event before sitting on the cross-party panel which found the former prime minister had lied to MPs with his Partygate denials.

Rishi Sunak immediately faced fresh calls to block Mr Bailey’s peerage – handed to the failed mayoral candidate by Mr Johnson in his resignation honours – while the police investigation takes place.

My colleagues Lizzie Dearden, Kate Devlin and Adam Forrest report:

Under hostile attack from the liaison committee, Sunak embodied a new, unpatented emoji: doomed prime minister face, writes Sean O’Grady.

The former prime minister had seen an early copy of the report, which concluded he had lied to MPs on an “unprecedented” scale. Had Mr Johnson stayed on as the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, he would have faced a 90-day suspension from parliament – more than enough to trigger a tough by-election in the constituency.

Click below to read about the five lies that led to Mr Johnson’s downfall.

A former Downing Street official who worked throughout the Covid crisis has revealed the true scale of the drunken debauchery under Boris Johnson – with No 10 parties so wild that staff passed out on the stairway.

They revealed that Mr Johnson was “happy” to have his staff drinking and oversaw a culture of endemic rule-breaking so widespread that it put No 10 at odds with the rest of the country.