Met Police face legal action over refusal to probe No 10 Christmas parties

25 comments
  1. THE Metropolitan Police has been threatened with legal action if it fails to justify its refusal to investigate numerous and still mounting reports of Christmas parties held by the Tory government while the rest of the UK was in lockdown.

    One such party was held on December 18 and saw up to 50 people addressed by Boris Johnson’s [director of communications Jack Doyle](https://www.thenational.scot/news/19774855.tory-spin-doctor-made-speech-gave-awards-downing-street-party/).

    Reports said this party had been planned for weeks and involved wine, food, and a “secret Santa”.

    However, two days prior to the event, London entered Tier 3 restrictions. The law stated: “No person may participate in a gathering in the Tier 3 area which consists of two or more people, and takes place in any indoor space.”

    The UK Government’s own guidance issued at the time said: “You must not have a work Christmas lunch or party, where that is a primarily social activity.”

    Despite corroborating reports across print media and broadcast, the Met Police [refused to investigate](https://www.thenational.scot/news/national/19771606.police-will-not-investigate-rule-breaking-no-10-christmas-party-now/) due to an “absence of evidence” and a policy “not to investigate retrospective breaches”.

    The claim of an absence of evidence sparked fury, coming as it did hours after the Prime Minister told Parliament his offices would hand over all the evidence they had of such parties.

    Commenting on the Met’s refusal at the time, Good Law Project director Jolyon Maugham (above) said: “I think they have forgotten their role is to *investigate* crime. We will remind them.”

    Now, Maugham’s outfit has written to the Met threatening legal proceedings if it fails to adequately justify its refusal to investigate.

    They say that the force is due to respond before the new year.

    Maugham said: “Now we know what Boris Johnson and his advisors think about the awful sacrifices people up and down the country have made. They think sacrifices are for the ‘small’ people – but not for ‘great’ people like them.

    “But the law says we are all equal. Great and small alike, subject to the same laws. That’s what the law says – and the Metropolitan Police need to apply it.”

    *Xander Richards*

    Friday, 10 December 2021

  2. Jolyon battered a fox to death with a baseball bat so hopefully he doesn’t the same to Govts in the courts.

  3. It’s a blatant dereliction of duty by a police force which already has a bad reputation. Whatever happened to the idea of the police being ordinary citizens with the Queen’s Warrant and the decency to stand up for what’s right? What I hear about the Met these days certainly doesn’t fit that model.

  4. I would say they are reluctant as they enabled the offence and any investigation would show this. Seems we need to police the police.

  5. They quite literally have officers on the door of the location where the law was broken, not even a mouse gets into No. 10 without being checked and recorded, and they won’t investigate it because of lack of evidence?!?
    WTF do we pay the police for if not to investigate things and GATHER EVIDENCE; especially when they are guarding the fucking building in question!

  6. I suspect Dick is blocking investigation after the Tories supported her standing against calls for her to resign when there were demands for her to do so

  7. Good.

    It’s fucking disgraceful that they refused.

    It’s disgraceful that it happened in the first place!

    It’s disgraceful that this country elected a slogan.

    This country, right now, is a fucking disgrace.

  8. Idiocy. The police shouldn’t be investigating a lockdown violation a year later.

    The only thing that makes this major is the political and government angle, and that’s exactly why the police should be staying consistent.

  9. The law has always been pliable through the use of money, but such blatant violation and the police turning a blind eye to it will encourage vigilantism. The police failure on this matter is incredibly dangerous and irresponsible.

  10. JolyOnAndOn will find that he is taking out of his arse, again, and nothing will occur other than him claiming his expenses off the donations given by well meaning mugs.

    If you don’t like what happened ‘prosecute’ with your vote at the next election.

  11. The Met Police say they don’t investigate crimes retrospectively, for example the Downing St Xmas Party. They need to know in advance if a crime is likely.

  12. For the Met, you can copy and paste this: “We have reviewed the all the evidence presented to us and have found no evidence of any wrongdoing at No. 10 Downing Street. As no crime has been committed we now consider this matter closed.”

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