Inside Politics: ‘Buck stops with the PM’, says Labour as Met issues 20 Partygate fines

Opposition says Johnson ‘lied’ to parliament and ‘the country’ as it calls for him to resign after Met Police confirms law broken at the heart of government during lockdown, writes Matt Mathers

(AFP via Getty Images)

The Met Police’s decision to fine government officials for breaking Covid laws during lockdown answers one burning question about the Partygate scandal, but leaves several others very much open. We now know, without doubt, that staff at the heart of power broke the very rules they were asking the rest of us to follow – a damning indictment of Boris Johnson’s leadership, whichever way you look at it. What we still don’t know is whether or not the prime minister will be among those who are handed fixed penalty notices and what impact that could have on his premiership. No 10 suggested yesterday that the PM is not among those listed in the initial tranche of sanctions and repeated its line that it would give an update “if that were to occur”. A spokesman added that “our position hasn’t changed” in terms of whether or not he would resign if so.

At the very least, the fines weaken Johnson’s claim to MPs in the Commons on 1 December that “all guidance was followed completely in No 10” during Covid lockdowns. Labour says the fines demonstrate that the PM is a “liar” who repeatedly misled parliament and the country. While a minister who has mislead parliament is expected to resign, proving that he or she did so knowingly is incredibly difficult. Meanwhile, the mood among Tory MPs, who were wined and dined by Johnson at a luxury hotel in central London last night, has shifted. Some, including the party’s leader in Scotland, Douglas Ross, have publicly withdrawn their calls for him to resign. Yet multiple focus groups and polls have shown that while public anger about the scandal may have subsided somewhat, the events that took place in Downing Street at a time of national crisis have not been forgotten. Johnson looks safe for now at least, although Conservative MPs could once again become restless and attempt to remove him if the party has poor results at May’s local elections.

Inside the bubble