Scotland Yard is scrutinising a video showing Tory staff cavorting at a Christmas party when Covid restrictions were in force.
Michael Gove yesterday apologised for the ‘terrible’ clip as officers said they were ‘considering’ the new evidence.
The Levelling Up Secretary acknowledged that the actions of the Tory workers – at a time when the rest of the country was largely banned from socialising indoors – were ‘deeply distressing’.
The staff at the party, organised by the team behind Shaun Bailey’s failed bid to be elected London mayor, joked about pandemic restrictions in the video, obtained by the Daily Mirror.
The clip also shows a couple holding hands while dancing before they crash into a buffet table laden with food and wine glasses, prompting laughter.
Scotland Yard is scrutinising a video showing Tory staff cavorting at a Christmas party when Covid restrictions were in force
The clip also shows a couple holding hands while dancing before they crash into a buffet table laden with food and wine glasses, prompting laughter
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said yesterday: ‘We are aware of the footage and are considering it.’
Mr Gove said there had already been an investigation into the party, which took place in Westminster in December 2020, and revellers had been disciplined.
But he insisted two of the attendees should not be stripped of the gongs they received in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list.
Scotland Yard’s statement opens the prospect of police comparing the partygoers’ accounts of the event with the video footage. An earlier inquiry had access only to still photographs.
Mr Gove told Sky’s Sunday with Sophy Ridge programme: ‘It’s terrible. I think it’s completely out of order.
‘As I understand it, this was an event that was organised by the people who were running the mayoral campaign for Shaun Bailey. They had obviously behaved in a way which is unacceptable. I just want to apologise to everyone really, who, looking at that image, will think these are people who were flouting the rules that were put in place to protect us all.’
The staff at the party, organised by the team behind Shaun Bailey’s failed bid to be elected London mayor, joked about pandemic restrictions in the video, obtained by the Daily Mirror
Michael Gove yesterday apologised for the ‘terrible’ clip as officers said they were ‘considering’ the new evidence
In another interview, with GB News, Mr Gove added: ‘The actions here are deeply distressing and I could only apologise to people that individuals behaved in this way. Naturally anyone looking at this video is going to be extremely angry.
‘My understanding is that there was an investigation into the party. When the photograph emerged, people were disciplined.’
The knees-up was attended by Mr Bailey, who received a peerage in Mr Johnson’s honours list, and Tory aide Ben Mallet, who was handed an OBE. Mr Bailey reportedly left the event before the video was taken and has apologised for his involvement.
Mr Mallet runs the campaign of barrister Moz Hossain KC, who wants to stand in next year’s London mayoral race on the Tory ticket. Asked whether the pair should be blocked from receiving honours, Mr Gove told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show: ‘No, I don’t think that.
‘The decision to confer honours on people was one that was made by Boris Johnson as an outgoing prime minister. Outgoing prime ministers have that right.
‘Whether or not they should is a matter of legitimate public debate, but they do at the moment.’
Earlier on the day of the party – December 14, 2020 – Mr Johnson had announced that London would move from Tier 2 restrictions that barred people meeting ‘socially indoors’ to the tighter Tier 3 at midnight. The same day, his health secretary Matt Hancock announced that a mutant Covid strain had been detected and was being urgently studied.
Five days later Mr Johnson cancelled Christmas as he announced parts of Britain would move into even tighter Tier 4 restrictions, which reintroduced the ‘Stay at Home’ message from earlier in the pandemic.
In the footage, one attendee can be heard joking about Covid restrictions, laughing and saying: ‘As long as we don’t stream that we’re, like, bending the rules.’
The dancing pair are shown twirling each other past signs that read ‘Please keep your distance’.
Amos Waldman, a member of the Covid 19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, told Times Radio: ‘I was appalled and sickened by the video. It’s not a huge surprise given we know what was happening, but the imagery of it was pretty powerful, and completely at odds with what the rest of the country, and certainly we as bereaved families and our loved ones, were going through at the time.
‘It’s like a parallel universe and it’s difficult to comprehend how they can act in such a carefree manner.’
A Tory spokesman said: ‘Senior CCHQ staff became aware of an unauthorised social gathering in the basement of Matthew Parker Street organised by the Bailey campaign on the evening of December 14, 2020.
‘Formal disciplinary action was taken against the four CCHQ staff who were seconded to the Bailey campaign.’
