Boris Johnson has not been issued a vital Party gate questionnaire,

Boris Johnson has not been issued a vital Party gate questionnaire, causing frustration at the Met.

Officials in Downing Street who are being investigated by the police for lockdown breaches have expressed their displeasure after learning that Boris Johnson has yet to receive a questionnaire for at least one crucial departure activity.

The Metropolitan police are expected to make an announcement soon after the local elections, with expectations of more Party gate fines, amid growing anger at what one official called Scotland Yard’s “scattergun approach,” which included different people being sent questionnaires two months apart for the same event.

The prime minister claimed on Tuesday that the Metropolitan Police Department had not contacted him regarding a farewell party for his former spin doctor Lee Cain in November 2020. Other people who attended, according to sources, were sent Met questionnaires, which can be a forerunner to a fixed-penalty notice (FPN).

Despite the fact that it was a stay-at-home Covid lockdown, Johnson gave a speech and served beverages at Cain’s farewell party on November 13th, according to those there.

Police are also looking into an alleged party hosted at the prime minister’s flat with his wife, Carrie Johnson, on the same night. According to sources, the gathering was held to commemorate Cain and Johnson’s former chief adviser Dominic Cummings’ departure.

So far, the prime minister has got one FPN for attending a birthday party at No 10 in June 2020 for what he claimed was only a few minutes, proving that police deemed his presence inappropriate.

MPs have also been dissatisfied by Scotland Yard’s approach to the Party gate inquiry, Operation Hillman. “The Met have blundered from the start, abdicating responsibility to [senior civil servant] Sue Gray and then re-entering the story just as we were getting close to a settlement,” one MP added.

“Given the gravity of the potential findings, the Met must establish a reasonable timeline for concluding their inquiry.”

Junior Downing Street staffers, who have already received many questionnaires from the Met, claim they are concerned about why Johnson has not been investigated for the same incidents, as well as the manner in which the inquiry has been conducted.

“It appears that there has been considerable thought given to how to have the least political impact possible — when someone is being probed for a criminal offence,” an ex-official stated. “How is this allowed to happen?” says the narrator.

Another person stated it was “disgraceful how the cops are stringing this out, it’s a historic scandal.”

Others who attended parties were affected by the investigation, according to a Whitehall source, including civil servant Kate Josephs, who has taken leave from a new post at Sheffield city council after her Cabinet Office parting party was detected as a lockdown breach in December 2020.

One issue mentioned by a Whitehall source was that police investigations began with evidence acquired by Gray, the civil servant initially tasked with looking into the matter.

She is thought to have collected some information about the events by interacting with a few attendees who offered specifics. After supporting Gray, some authorities who had small roles in gatherings now face police punishment, while others whose offences were arguably more serious were not approached by officers.

“I am not talking on this things generally, but the answer to that is no, not so far, or definitely not to my knowledge,” Johnson told Times Radio on Tuesday when asked if he had received a Met questionnaire about the November 2020 departing party. All of this will become obvious once the investigation is completed.”

Johnson, Carrie Johnson, and the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, have all been penalized for their birthday cake gathering. He does not appear to have been penalized for a “bring your own booze” party in the Downing Street garden in May 2020, which others were fined for.

Johnson confessed attending the gathering for around 25 minutes in January, but said he “believed implicitly that this was a professional function” because it was held during the first national lockdown, when indoor and outdoor social mixing was prohibited. Martin Reynolds, his then-privy secretary, is alleged to have invited up to 100 people to the “socially distant” evening cocktails.

Officials participating in the inquiry believe Johnson will face two more fines: one for Cain’s farewell party and the other for the flat party the same evening. . Johnson, on the other hand, is said to be certain that he will not face any additional fines.