Just over a hundred fines, specifically 126, were issued in total by Scotland Yard, which this Thursday has concluded the investigation into partygate, the illegal parties held in government buildings during confinement by Covid-19.
The number of people sanctioned, however, is lower, since some were fined more than once for their participation in events on eight different dates, police sources reported, detailing that 28 people received between two and five sanctions. Of the 126, 97 have already been paid.
The twelve detectives who worked on the investigation, which cost 460,000 pounds sterling (about 542,000 euros), examined 345 documents, including emails and witness statements, as well as more than 500 photographs and images from security cameras.
“Our investigation was thorough and impartial and was completed as quickly as we could, given the amount of information that needed to be reviewed and the importance of ensuring we had solid evidence,” said Helen Ball, acting deputy commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police, who He added that “there is no doubt that the pandemic affected us all in many ways and strong feelings and opinions have been expressed on this particular topic.”
Now that the police investigation has been closed, the government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who received at least one confirmed fine, will have to fulfill its commitment to publish the full report of the official Sue Gray on what happened, whose detailed publication will be postponed when Scotland Yard started theirs.
For his part, a Downing Street spokesman assured this morning that Johnson “will not face further action” for ‘partygate’, nor will his wife, Carrie Johnson, who was also fined.
Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the Labor Party, reacted to the news by saying that “an industrial-scale rule-breaking has taken place in the heart of Boris Johnson’s Downing Street” and that “we now urgently need to see Sue’s report.” Gray published in full”. “It’s time for the Prime Minister to stop hiding,” he said, adding that while “the British people sacrificed so much, Boris Johnson’s Downing Street broke the rules on an unprecedented scale” for what, he said, the UK “he deserves better.”
Harder was Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, who stated that “this police investigation confirms that Boris Johnson’s Downing Street was fined more times for violating the Covid laws than any other address in the country”, which leaves in doubt evidences the “shocking level of criminality at the heart of Johnson’s Number 10.” “It is unbelievable that Conservative MPs allow our great country to be run by a Prime Minister who broke the law and then repeatedly lied about it,” he concluded.
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