Police close their investigation of Downing Street parties during the pandemic with 126 fines

Scotland Yard has concluded this Thursday its investigation into the parties in Downing Street during confinement by the coronavirus.

Paradoxically, the closure of this file may mean the opening of new days of pressure on Boris Johnson.

Deputy Cabinet Secretary Sue Gray (

in the ranking of senior British officials) stopped the publication of much of the content of her internal report on what happened, so as not to interfere with police investigations.

The report is likely to see the light of day next week, and is expected to contain a harsh questioning of Johnson's ethical leadership of his government team in the days of the pandemic.

The police investigation has been closed with a total of 126 fines, of which the first 20 were announced a few weeks ago.

Boris Johnson, his wife, Carrie Symonds, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, received the sanction notice for their presence at a party on June 19, 2020. It was the Prime Minister's birthday, and Symonds arranged the celebration, with cake included, in the Cabinet Room, the room where the full Government meets weekly.

The exact amount of the penalty has not been revealed, but, during confinement, the rules established a range of between just over 30 euros and up to 12,000.

Everything suggests that the fine received by Johnson moved around 60 euros.

The prime minister's spokesmen have confirmed this Thursday that he will not receive a second fine, as Scotland Yard has already told them.

"Our investigation has been thorough and impartial, and concluded as quickly as possible, given the amount of information that needed to be reviewed, and the importance of making sure every ticket was supported by solid evidence," said Helen Ball, the deputy inspector at the head of the London Metropolitan Police.

Twelve detectives, 345 documents (mails, WhatsApp messages, witness statements...), 510 photographs and video images and 204 questionnaires for those involved.

The total cost of the entire process, according to Scotland Yard, has been more than 540,000 euros.

It was not the amount itself, but the historically unprecedented fact that a prime minister was sanctioned for breaking the law, and also within Downing Street, that put Johnson back on the ropes.

He had to apologize in parliament, although at no time did he contemplate the possibility of resigning from office.

“It never occurred to me, then or later, that this meeting in the Cabinet Room, a few minutes before what was going to be another key Covid strategy meeting, might be a breach of the rules.

It was my mistake and I apologize unreservedly," the prime minister said then.

Opposition Labor Leader Keir Starmer, who has since repeatedly called for Johnson's resignation, ended up embroiled in the latest twist in an affair that has at times turned into a comedy of the absurd.

Durham police opened another investigation a couple of weeks ago for alleged breaches of confinement rules.

This time, it was Starmer under investigation, for making a break with his team, campaigning for a local election, for a beer and some takeaway Indian food.

The Labor leader has announced that he will resign if the police end up fining him.

Waiting for Sue Gray

Despite the fact that Scotland Yard's decision to open its own investigation put a stop to Sue Gray's internal report, the senior official decided to publish part of the document at the end of January.

Specifically, regarding those events that occurred in Downing Street during the confinement that the police had not included in their investigations.

That first text already had a devastating content.

The staff who worked for Johnson in Downing Street during the confinement had shown little respect for the existing norms, and "at least in some of their meetings they committed a serious breach when it came to observing, not only the ethical norms required of the working at the heart of government, but those that could be required of the wider British population during this time,” the report said.

The general feeling, then, was that the worst was yet to come, because Gray had also handled photos, mail and other incriminating evidence.

And because his report does not have to conclude that criminal offenses have been committed.

It is above all an analysis of compliance or not with the required ethical and good governance standards, and the first indications that he presented at the end of January point to serious flaws.

Johnson has already announced his intention to appear again in the House of Commons after Gray's full report is released.

It is foreseeable that he apologizes again, with the intention of closing the episode.

It will depend on the internal unrest among the deputies of the conservative parliamentary group, who already had a first bitter taste of irritation among their voters in the last municipal elections, whether petitions for resignation, war drums, and the ghost of a motion for internal censorship to bring down the prime minister.

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