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UK police will not take further action against Prime Minister Boris Johnson over ‘Partygate’ scandal

UK police will not take further action against Prime Minister Boris Johnson over ‘Partygate’ scandal

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UK police will not carry out further action against Prime Minister Boris Johnson over alleged breaches of Covid-19 regulations, Downing Street has said.

Johnson was fined by police on April 13 for attending a birthday party thrown for him in his official Downing Street residence in June 2020, when large indoor gatherings were banned due to Coronavirus restrictions.

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Johnson claimed in December 2021 that he had been assured “there was no party and that no Covid rules were broken.”

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But investigations show he attended a number of events himself, including the party for which he was fined.

Metropolitan police launched an investigation into the Prime Minister with some in Number 10 calling for his resignation. However, on Thursday, May 19, it announced it had completed investigations into the “Partygate” scandal .

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Announcing the end of its investigation online, the Metropolitan Police force issued a statement saying: “The Met has today announced the investigation into alleged breaches of Covid regulations at Downing Street and Whitehall, under Operation Hillman, is complete.

“In total, detectives have made 126 referrals for fixed penalty notices (FPNs) to the ACRO Criminal Records Office for breaches of Covid-19 regulations.”

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The Metropolitan Police said that it will not identify those fined for Covid breaches in Downing Street, but said that 35 men received 53 fines, while 48 women received 73 fines — some of whom were fined more than once.

 

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Acting Deputy Commissioner Helen Ball, of the Met said in the statement:

“There is no doubt that the pandemic impacted all of us in so many ways and strong feelings and opinions have been expressed on this particular issue.

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“When Covid regulations were introduced, the Met was clear that whilst we would not routinely investigate breaches of regulations retrospectively, there may be occasions when it would be appropriate to do so.

“The information that we received with regard to the alleged breaches in Downing Street and Whitehall was sufficient to reach our criteria to begin such an investigation.

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“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 that we had strong evidence for each FPN referral.

 

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“This investigation is now complete.”

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “The Met has confirmed that they are taking no further action with regards to the Prime Minister.”

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