After 11 months of investigation involving 12 full time dedicated police officers, with other support and oversight as required, Operation Hillman has concluded at a cost of £460,000. During the inquiry 126 referrals for fixed penalty notices were made. Boris Johnson and his wife will not receive any further fines.
The Met said today:
“A team of twelve detectives worked through 345 documents, including emails, door logs, diary entries and witness statements, 510 photographs and CCTV images and 204 questionnaires as part of a careful and thorough enquiry.”
We now wait for the Sue Gray report.
Boris Johnson’s Downing Street was fined more times for breaking Covid laws than any other address in the country.
The full Sue Gray report should now be published without delay.
The public made huge sacrifices while Boris Johnson partied, they deserve the full truth.
— Ed Davey (@EdwardJDavey) May 19, 2022
Conservative MPs are allowing our country to be run by a man who broke the law then repeatedly lied about it.
The full Sue Gray report should now be published without delay, and the parliamentary inquiry should be launched into Johnson’s lies. https://t.co/uvuTBWl6Ph
— Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) May 19, 2022
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8 Comments
As with everything in his life Johnson escapes the consequences of his actions..Sleaze and lies are as much a permanent fixture in his character as Marley’s chains but, in his world, ‘getting away with it’ is all that matters..He has dragged the position of PM to it’s lowest point (at least in my lifetime) but he doesn’t care..
He knows he is guilty, parliament knows he’s guilty and the whole country knows he’s guilty.. The only difference is ‘do enough of us care’? Sadly, the answer is ‘No!’
What makes the birthday cake incident for which Johnson was fined so different from all the others? It’s been said that fines were not issued for events in ‘homes’. What about the people who have been fined for events that happened in their homes? The Met has a lot to answer for, but won’t say anything.
When will this man ever receive the right and proper judgment that his appalling actions deserve, I have lived through some pretty awful administrations in my lifetime, but this one is the pits!
The Met has given substantial help to the PM three times during his partygate crisis.
1. First they said they wouldn’t investigate – which was a media ‘dead cat,’ diverting the intense media pressure the PM was under, and giving his allies a much-needed line of narrative: “See? It can’t have been that bad if the police are not investigating it.”
2. Then, as the Sue Gray report became the focus of the story and everyone was waiting on tenterhooks for it, the Met suddenly said they WOULD investigate after all – which forced SG to with-hold publication until after they’d finished. i.e. months. All we got was a redacted ‘interim’ report. And BJ’s allies got another free bit of narrative: “Well it would be wrong to say anything now until the police investigation is completed.”
3. Now, the Met have concluded the probe and he’s getting ‘only’ one fine. So that’s yet another narrative line for his people: “Well the PM has apologised and paid his fine, but really one fine is not as bad as some were predicting.” Plus the SG report now seems a bit superfluous and meaningless.
These three interventions each helped the PM stay afloat at crucial moments, buying him time. I’ve never been one for lefty anti-police conspiracy theories, but if you stand back and take a long look at this as a whole, it really doesn’t look good.
Let them eat cake! Time for Carrie Antoinette to throw another party. On a previous occasion she celebrated with Abba’s Winner Takes It All. This time, I would suggest Alvvays’ Party Police…
Ode to Boris Johnson (apologies to the ‘pig’)
In November 2020, when he was downin’ plenty,
An’ talking total rot with manly pride;
His voice began to stutter, with every word he’d utter,
And Cummings came and stood there by his side;
They sang, “We’re a pair of smarties cos these gatherings aren’t parties”
Till a junior aide was clearly heard to say:
‘You can tell a man who “Cheats” by the company he keeps’
And Cummings packed his ‘box’ and walked away.
However, regarding scandals, all is not lost. Johnson’s character ensures that. like a London bus, there will be another one along soon..
I would like to see those who DID get a FPN for something that happened at home standing up and protesting with chapter and verse.
Might it be the case that the attitudes and performance of the Metropolitan Police in this matter come somewhere on a continuum/spectrum between inept and corrupt?
How is it that the officers on duty at 10 Downing Street, all the while, were unaware of what was going on?
Might our party ask that question?
Here is a more definite point of view:
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2022/05/20/