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Case Update

The Met keeps the door open for an investigation into Downing Street’s parties

14th January 2022

We wrote to the Met yesterday after media reports that they had decided not to investigate the notorious 20 May 2020 No 10 garden party, which was attended by the Prime Minister. We have now received a response. Contrary to those reports the Met have confirmed that they haven’t made a decision about whether to investigate the 20 May 2020 party yet.

The Met say that all available material relating to the 20 May party, including the Prime Minister’s statement to Parliament on Wednesday, has been passed to a specialist team for assessment. And no decision has yet been reached.

We will carry on holding the Met’s feet to the fire until they live up to their responsibilities and conduct a full investigation. There cannot, must not, be two systems of criminal justice. In a way, what the Met has permitted – parallel criminal law regimes, a normal one for normal people, and a special one for special people – is as profound an attack on the rule of law as Johnson’s suspension of Parliament was on democracy.

We are deeply concerned about how willing the Met seems to be to tolerate this destruction of public confidence in the law, to defer to the powerful.


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You can read our letter to the Met Police here. And the Met’s response today here.

Case

This article is part of our Investigate all the Downing Street parties case

We’ve launched a second round of legal proceedings against the Met Police and its handling of Partygate. Former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, was fined for attending one lockdown gathering, but the Met failed to properly look into his attendance at three others.

See more about this case