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Police to investigate No 10 lockdown parties | Police to investigate No 10 lockdown parties |
(32 minutes later) | |
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Watch Dame Cressida Dick announce the Met Police's investigation into No 10 lockdown parties | |
The Metropolitan Police have launched an investigation into parties held in No 10 during the coronavirus pandemic. | |
Commissioner Cressida Dick said they were looking into "potential breaches of Covid-19 regulations" in Downing Street and Whitehall since 2020. | |
She said the investigation was launched as a "result of the information provided by the Cabinet Office inquiry team", led by civil servant Sue Gray. | |
The Cabinet Office said Ms Gray's own inquiry would continue. | |
But it is not yet clear if the police investigation will lead to delays in its publication. | |
The news comes after fresh allegations of a birthday party being held for the PM in June 2020. | |
Downing Street has admitted that staff gathered inside No 10 to celebrate Boris Johnson's birthday when the first Covid lockdown was still in place. | |
But ministers have disputed the number of people attending, and called for "patience" while Ms Gray's inquiry is carried out to establish the facts. | |
The first thing is to have a sense of proportion. | |
When you hear the words "Met Police, investigation, criminal, Downing Street" that sounds incredibly dramatic. | |
This is a big development in this story but we are talking about the potential issuing of fixed penalty notices - fines - we are not talking about big criminal trials or people going to prison. | |
So it is important to keep that sense of perspective. | |
There are also lots of things we don't know about this police investigation. | |
We don't know how many of those high-profile parties are now being investigated and crucially we don't know if they were parties attended by the prime minister. | |
We don't know if the prime minister is in the frame for being interviewed by the police. | |
So, lots of unanswered questions but it means this is going to rumble on at a much higher volume for a lot longer. |