By Met Police to investigate Downing Street parties
The Metropolitan Police will now investigate the multiple Downing Street parties over potential lockdown breaches, Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick confirms.
Commissioner Dick said the force was looking into “potential breaches of Covid-19 regulations” within No 10 and across Whitehall over the past two years.
She told the Greater London Aseembly’s police and crime comittee this morning that officers have assessed several other events which appear to have taken place, but on the available information these do not meet the threshold for further investigation.
“The fact we are now investigating does not of course mean that fixed penalty notices will be issued in every instance and to every person involved,” she adds.
The commissioner said it would not normally be a proportionate use of officers’ time to investigate after the fact what “could have been thousands of complaints”, describing them as summary offences.
But she says that some officers and high-profile people have been investigated after the fact.
“The occasions on which we have done that is where they appeared to be the most serious and flagrant type of breach,” she says.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said the investigation being carried out by senior civil servant Sue Gray into events in Downing Street over the pandemic is continuing.
“There is in ongoing contact with the Metropolitan Police Service,” they added.
This morning, reports were released revealing that the PM had a “birthday celebration” at Downing Street on June 19 2020. back when indoor mixing was only allowed between two households.
Downing Street have admitted that the PM was in attendance but that he only attended the gathering for “10 minutes”.
This news is breaking, updates to follow.
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