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Acting Met Commissioner defends not fining PM for attending leaving party during lockdown

Acting Commissioner of the Met Police Sir Stephen House is giving evidence to the London Assembly’s police and crime committee.

He has been challenged by one member over why Boris Johnson did not receive a fixed penalty notice for attending a leaving party in Downing Street held for former director of communications Lee Cain on 13 November 2020.

A photograph of the PM at the event was released as part of the Sue Gray report. The event took place during the second national lockdown.

Sir Stephen defended the Operation Hillman investigation, saying he was “confident of the integrity of the decisions” taken.

He said officers had “looked at hundreds of documents, including emails, electronic door logs – in other words, people in and out at various times – diary entries, witness statements, photographs, CCTV images, and we sent questionnaires to people who we felt may have breached legislation.”

“The explanations that were given in the questionnaire were all considered carefully,” he said.

“Some gatherings we decided were not work related, and some we decided were work related,” he added.

Explaining how decisions were taken, the acting commissioner said fines were issued only in cases where officers were confident a conviction could be secured if challenged in court.

“We also included consideration of the nature of the gathering, the different phases of the gathering, and the amount of time spent there, as I said by any participant and critically, cross referenced the evidence to identify whether the individual, on a full consideration of all the facts that we had, including their own account, did or did not have a reasonable excuse for his or her participation in the gathering.”

“If the case were taken to court, in other words, if we issued a fixed penalty notice and it was refused and somebody said no, I want to go to court, then we had the evidence that we thought would give us a realistic prospect of a conviction

“I believe that the decisions that my officers made were based on the facts and were proper.”