Met launches investigation into party ‘attended by Partygate inquisitor’

Police have launched two investigations into political gatherings during Covid restrictions.

The Met said it is looking into two different alleged rule-breaking incidents on December 8, 220 and December 14, 2020.

Scotland Yard said that after assessing new evidence including a video, it was re-investigating a ‘Jingle and Mingle’ Christmas party held at the Conservative Party’s campaign headquarters on December 14, 2020.

It announced that it was also opening a probe into ‘potential breaches of the regulations at an event on 8 December 2020’, which is the date of an alleged drinks event attended by Partygate inquisitor Sir Bernard Jenkin.

But the Metropolitan Police said that a ‘number of other events’ at Downing Street and the prime minister’s country residence Chequers, which were believed to involve Mr Johnson in 2020 and 2021, would not be probed further.

Officers assessed official diary entries that were passed to the Met by the Cabinet Office ahead of the Covid public inquiry, in a move attacked by Mr Johnson’s allies.

At the time, a statement from the former prime minister’s office said his lawyers had written to police to ‘explain in detail why the Cabinet Office is entirely wrong in its assertions’.

In a video obtained by the Daily Mirror, one reveller can be heard saying it’s okay to film ‘as long as we don’t stream that we’re, like, bending the rules’.

The jamboree, held at the Conservative Campaign Headquarters in London on December 14 2020 amid Tier 2 restrictions, saw two dozen reportedly attend.

The guest list included two people named on Boris Johnson’s already controversial honours list.

They include Shaun Bailey, the failed London mayoral candidate who has since been handed a peerage, and Tory mayoral campaign manager Ben Ballet.

One couple can be seen in the 45-second footage swaying and twirling along to Fairytale Of New York, at one point knocking into a table rammed with party food and alcohol.

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: ‘Based on an assessment of that material and an account provided regarding the diary entries, and also having sought some further clarification, the Met and Thames Valley Police have each assessed the events in their jurisdiction and concluded that they do not meet the retrospective criteria for opening an investigation.’

The force said it could revisit assessments if significant evidence comes to light, and added: ‘The approach to the assessment of these events has been consistent, enforcing the law carefully, thoroughly, proportionately, impartially and without fear or favour.’

In a press release The Met said: ‘The Met is now re-opening an investigation into potential breaches of the regulations at an event in Matthew Parker Street on 14 December 2020.’

They added: ‘Following assessment of material relating to a gathering in Parliament, the Met is opening an investigation into potential breaches of the Regulations at an event on 8 December 2020.’

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