Deputy Assistant Commissioner Jane Connors
(Picture: Metropolitan Police )The senior officer in charge of the Downing Street partygate investigation has previously hit out at Covid rule-breakers.
Deputy assistant commissioner Jane Connors’ special inquiry team is likely to examine CCTV, emails, visitor logs and question attendees at No10’s alleged rule-breaking lockdown parties.
In an article for the Standard last March, Ms Connors, the officer in charge of coronavirus and violent crime policing, said: “Countless lives have been saved because people understood the urgency and adhered to the rules.”
But she criticised those who “flagrantly” ignored the regulations, forcing officers to be diverted from frontline duties.
She wrote: “Frustratingly, a small minority ignored the rules and continue to do so. As people lay in hospital beds, others held large house parties or raves in abandoned warehouses.”
Ms Connors joined the force in 1993. She earned her spurs in Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest and Westminster and was promoted to commander in 2018, before gaining her current rank in 2021.
Last year, she defended the force over their handling of the vigil on Clapham Common for murdered Sarah Everard. Footage showed officers pinning demonstrators to the ground and dragging others away.
Ms Connors said that while she understood why “people need to express their views” the force had to ‘“take some enforcement action as the evening progressed”.
She also backed police officers and the controversial security operation at the Euro 2020 final, saying, “I am in no doubt that their swift action prevented any further escalation.”
Ms Connors was also the officer in charge when police were filmed raving with Extinction Rebellion demonstrators at Oxford Circus in 2019.
Commander Catherine Roper, head of the special inquiry team dubbed the “celebrity squad”, will report detectives’ findings to Ms Connors.
