The “partygate” probe
The list of “alleged Covid rule-breaking parties” across Westminster last Christmas is a long one, said Aubrey Allegretti in The Guardian. The Tories have admitted that one was thrown by staff of the then-London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey in their HQ on 1 December (Bailey quit his London Assembly post after a photo of the bash emerged). Another gathering was allegedly held in Downing Street on 13 November. At least three other reports of parties are being investigated by Cabinet Secretary Simon Case: a No.10 leaving do on 27 November; drinks at the Department for Education on 10 December; and the notorious Downing Street party eight days later. Case is also said to be investigating whether the PM himself broke the law by joining a virtual quiz in Downing Street on 15 December.
A photo of Johnson at that event was published by the Sunday Mirror – but it’s hardly the smoking gun his critics would have you believe, said Freddy Gray in The Spectator. The gathering is said to have involved staff huddling around computers drinking while the PM questioned teams with names such as “Professor Quiz Whitty”. But the photo shows Johnson flanked by only two aides during the Zoom quiz – and the only alcohol visible is hand sanitiser.
Even so, he’s “not out of the woods” yet, said Oliver Wright in The Times. Witnesses say he was in the building at the time of the 18 December bash, which was organised on WhatsApp and allegedly attended by up to 50 people. A leaked video of the PM’s aide, Allegra Stratton, joking about that party has already cost her her job. And, since Downing Street is “not a big place”, it’s hard to believe the PM “was unaware of the festivities going on around him” – whatever his claims to the contrary. Police have so far resisted opening any investigations into whether lockdown laws were broken, but the inquiry led by Case – which Johnson himself ordered and which is expected to report within days – could yet “come back to haunt” the PM.