The Metropolitan Police announced that it would not be investigating Downing Street’s alleged Christmas party last year – even though it would have breached lockdown rules – and people aren’t happy.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Met admitted they “received a significant amount of correspondence relating to allegations reported in the media” about a breach of lockdown rules at No.10 in both November and December last year.
Referring to ITV’s leaked video of Boris Johnson’s former adviser Allegra Stratton laughing over having a party while the rest of the country was in lockdown, the statement continued: “All the correspondence has been considered by detectives in detail, as well as footage published by ITV News.”
The Met added: “The correspondence and footage does not provide evidence of a breach fo the Health Protection Regulations, but restates allegations made in the media.
“Based on the absence of evidence and in line with our policy not to investigate retrospective breaches of such regulations, the Met will not commence an investigation at this time.”
The Met said it had also spoken to the Cabinet Office about a government inquiry into the party, and added: “If any evidence is found as a result of that investigation, it will be passed to the Met for further consideration.”
It’s worth noting that the policing minister Kit Malthouse was not even able to say whether or not the Met should investigate the alleged party on Monday as well.
There has been a public outcry since the reports about a No.10 party first came to light last week – so this news from the Met did not exactly soothe people.
Some people hit out by claiming the Met investigate other people who breached lockdown rules, so why not Downing Street?
Others wondered what kind of evidence the Met wanted before they felt they could conduct an investigation.
And a handful of Twitter accounts questioned the rules around policing itself...