Police could contact Boris TODAY over new PartyGate probe as 50 members of No10 staff nervously watch their emails for letters from the Met – while poll finds two thirds of public want PM to QUIT if he is guilty of breaches
- Met Police has said it is sending letters to approximately 50 people in Whitehall
- Boris Johnson is widely expected to be one of the people receiving the letter
- Recipients of letters will be asked to set out their account of alleged gatherings
- Poll showed two thirds think PM should quit if he is found to have breached rules
- Solicitor general Alex Chalk refused to say if he has sent no confidence letter
Boris Johnson today refused to say if he will resign if he is found to have broken the law over Partygate as the PM and Number 10 staff nervously wait for police letters to arrive.
The Metropolitan Police has started the process of contacting people who are alleged to have attended events in Whitehall.
It is sending formal questionnaires to more than 50 people to ask them to give an account of their involvement, with the documents due to start arriving by the end of this week.
The questionnaire will have ‘formal legal status’ and ‘must be answered truthfully’, with people given seven days to reply.
The force has said that in most cases contact is being made via email which means people will dodge a formal interview and policing sources told The Times that Mr Johnson is likely to receive a questionnaire.
Asked during a NATO press conference in Brussels this morning if he will resign if he is found to have broken the law, Mr Johnson said: ‘On your point about what’s going on at home, that process must be completed and I’m looking forward to it being completed, and that’s the time to say more on that.’
The Met is investigating 12 events in total and reports have claimed that Mr Johnson attended six of them.
If the explanation given by recipients is not judged by the police to constitute a ‘reasonable excuse’ then fixed penalty notices could be issued.
It came as a new poll conducted by Redfield and Wilton Strategies for MailOnline found two thirds (66 per cent) of the British public believe Mr Johnson should resign as PM if he is found to have breached coronavirus regulations and is fined by the police.
Meanwhile, a Government minister, the Solicitor General Alex Chalk, has reportedly refused to say whether he has submitted a letter of no confidence in Mr Johnson’s leadership.
Boris Johnson today refused to say if he will resign if he is found to have broken the law over Partygate as the PM and Number 10 staff nervously wait for police letters to arrive
The Met has said it is sending formal questionnaires to more than 50 people in Whitehall, with the documents due to arrive by the end of this week
The Solicitor General Alex Chalk, has reportedly refused to say whether he has submitted a letter of no confidence in Mr Johnson’s leadership
A Government minister has admitted that Conservative MPs are ‘incandescent’ with rage about the Partygate scandal.
Solicitor-General Alex Chalk said that he was ‘deeply disappointed’ by the revelations and warned Boris Johnson that ‘seeking to weather a storm cannot be enough’.
In a letter to constituents, he told voters that despite the publication of Sue Gray’s interim report the problem of Downing Street parties was ‘not over’.
The Times quoted the letter as saying: ‘I am deeply disappointed — and frankly dismayed — by what has been uncovered about events in Downing Street.
‘I am not alone. Laura Kuenssberg [political editor at the BBC] said in her blog: ‘There are Conservative MPs who are incandescent’. That is absolutely true.’
Mr Chalk has a majority of just 981 in his constituency of Cheltenham, which voted to remain in the European Union in 2016.
He was persuaded not to resign from Johnson’s front bench at a meeting with the PM last week amid reports that he was uneasy about the Partygate drama.
Mr Chalk refused to reveal whether he had submitted a letter of no-confidence to the 1922 Committee, saying it was a ‘private’ decision.
Downing Street has committed to saying publicly if the PM is fined by the police.
Mr Johnson has repeatedly denied breaching coronavirus rules and allies are insistent that he will stay on in Number 10 even if he is fined.
But some Tory MPs believe Mr Johnson will have no choice but to quit if he is found to have broken Covid rules.
One senior Conservative MP rubbished the idea that Mr Johnson could stay on, telling The Times: ‘We are supposed to be the party of law and order. We can’t have a prime minister who has received a criminal penalty.
‘A criminal penalty in any normal world should be the end.’
A lawyer today estimated that Mr Johnson could face more than £10,000 in fines if police rule that multiple events in Downing Street breached coronavirus restrictions.
Adam Wagner, an expert on Covid-19 rules, said the sending out of questionnaires is ‘very significant because it appears that the police at least think that they’re getting towards the point where they can start issuing fixed penalty notices’.
The human rights barrister told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘It sounds to me, although I haven’t seen the letters, that they’ve decided that relevant gatherings were potentially a breach of the regulations and now they’re asking people ‘Did you have some sort of reasonable excuse?’, which, in law, would effectively be a defence for being there.’
He said the most likely form of penalty to be issued by police investigating 12 gatherings is fixed penalty notices, with Mr Johnson alleged to have been at up to six of them.
‘So, if he was given a fixed penalty notice for each and every one of those, I think that he would be given those sort of cumulative amounts until eventually the final one would be £6,400,’ Mr Wagner said.
‘So overall, and assuming there isn’t a big £10,000 one for hosting a gathering in the flat of over 30 people, he could still be in line for over £10,000 worth of fixed penalty notices if they accumulate.’
The Met Police inquiry into alleged breaches of Covid-19 regulations in Downing Street and Whitehall has been named Operation Hillman.
The force confirmed yesterday that it is sending questionnaires: ‘This document, which asks for an account and explanation of the recipient’s participation in an event, has formal legal status and must be answered truthfully.
‘Recipients are informed that responses are required within seven days. In most cases contact is being made via email.’
The Met Police also announced yesterday that it was reviewing its decision not to investigate a Christmas quiz event held in Number 10 on December 15, 2020, following the emergence of a new photograph of Mr Johnson.
The picture, published by The Mirror, showed Mr Johnson and colleagues – one draped in tinsel and another in a Santa hat – near an open bottle of sparkling wine.
Downing Street has insisted the quiz event was ‘virtual’ and the police had decided not to investigate it alongside 12 other events after being passed evidence from the Sue Gray inquiry into alleged lockdown breaches.
But the Metropolitan Police said in a statement issued yesterday afternoon: ‘The MPS previously assessed this event and determined that on the basis of the evidence available at that time, it did not meet the threshold for criminal investigation.
‘That assessment is now being reviewed.’
Fifteen Tory MPs have called for Mr Johnson to step down with many now believing a no confidence vote is ‘inevitable’.
A total of 54 letters of no confidence would need to be sent to 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady to trigger a vote on the PM’s future.
Mr Chalk reportedly refused to say whether he had submitted a letter of no confidence, saying it was a ‘private’ decision.
In a letter to constituents, seen by The Times, Mr Chalk said he was ‘deeply disappointed’ and ‘frankly dismayed by what has been uncovered about events in Downing Street’.
A new picture emerged yesterday of Mr Johnson allegedly attending a Downing Street Christmas quiz
The minister is said to have had a meeting with the PM last week and was apparently persuaded not to quit.
Elsewhere, it emerged that the Met is considering whether to investigate the funding of the lavish refurbishment of Mr Johnson’s official Downing Street flat following a complaint by lawyers acting for the Labour Party.
In a letter to Scotland Yard, the solicitors said there was a ‘reasonable suspicion’ that the Prime Minister had broken anti-bribery laws which the force was ‘duty-bound’ to investigate.
The Met confirmed they had received the letter which was being considered by officers from its Central Specialist Crime Command.
The complaint follows the release last month of an exchange of WhatsApp messages between the Prime Minister and Tory donor Lord Brownlow.
They show that Mr Johnson discussed a proposal supported by the peer for a Great Exhibition 2.0 at the same time as requesting his help with the £112,000 revamp of his official residence.
Ministerial records show that two months later, Lord Brownlow, who is a trustee of Royal Albert Hall Trust, attended a meeting with the then culture secretary Oliver Dowden to discuss the exhibition plan.
In a letter, seen by the Guardian, lawyers said that despite inquiries by the Electoral Commission and Mr Johnson’s adviser on ministerial interests, Lord Geidt, there were still matters that were ‘uninvestigated and unconsidered’.
A Met spokesman said: ‘A letter was received and acknowledged on Friday February 4. It is being considered by officers from the Met’s Central Specialist Crime Command. No investigation has been opened.’
In response to the claims in the letter, a Number 10 spokesman said: ‘These allegations are categorically untrue and a clear misrepresentation of the facts.’
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