The first ever video of Conservatives partying at the height of the Covid lockdown was released over the weekend, and it left people reeling.
The Daily Mirror published the leaked footage on Saturday evening, showing staff at Tory HQ dancing, drinking and acknowledging that they were “bending” the rules at an indoor, non-socially distanced event.
At least 24 partygoers can be seen in the footage, dated December 14 2020.
London was under tier 2 restrictions at the time, which meant people could not socialise indoors.
The party was held by the campaign team for Shaun Bailey, who at the time was the Tory candidate for London mayor. He is one of two attendees seen at the party on former prime minster Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list.
While the Metropolitan Police were aware of the event during their investigation into partygate in 2022, no fines were issued for this particular gathering for breaking the rules. However, the Mirror reports that officers only had still images at the time, and did not have enough evidence of law-breaking.
The clip is now being “considered” by the police, Scotland Yard confirmed on Sunday.
Partygate has been pulled back into the public sphere in recent weeks, with the parliamentary privileges committee finally concluding that Johnson did deliberately mislead MPs when he denied any rule-breaking took place on his watch.
The report led Johnson to furiously resign as an MP.
On Monday, MPs will vote on whether to follow through on the committee’s recommended punishment for the former PM, and stop him from receiving a a parliamentary pass usually awarded to those who once had a seat.
The public Covid Inquiry also kicked off this month, which means reliving the early stages of the pandemic and looking into the government’s accountability when it come to the country’s preparedness.
So, this leaked footage is yet another blow to the Conservative government – something which is painfully clear, judging from Twitter’s reaction.
People called for anyone in the video to be removed from the honours list.
Twitter users speculated that it could cost the Tories the next general election in 2024, too.