A Tory ally of Boris Johnson has demanded police “butt out” of the Partygate saga.
Daniel Moylan, who the Prime Minister gave a House of Lords seat in 2020, said he was “astonished” when Scotland Yard began probing 12 lockdown events in Downing Street and Whitehall.
Lord Moylan moaned police enforcement of lockdown was only normally used for “egregious acid house parties”, tweeting: “Time for the police to butt out of this farcical investigation.”
He added: “They are not seeking compliance. They are seeking punishment. That wasn’t their purpose in enforcing Covid regulations.”
The peer made his claim despite police dishing out more than 100,000 fixed penalty notices for Covid law breaches up to June 2021.
More than 70,000 of those were for breaching the legal limits on gatherings.
Yet Lord Moylan told The Telegraph it was a “matter of judgement” for No10 staff because they were “in a work environment - it is not like inviting thousands of people to an acid party.”
He said the police’s role was to “seek compliance through a gentle word of encouragement and admonition”.
He added: “I don’t know of any other case where they have started an investigation to require retrospective compliance.”
It comes weeks after the Yorkshire Post accused the peer of insulting Yorkshiremen and women in a “sneering” Twitter gripe.
Lord Moylan had tweeted: "Everything I’ve read recently in @yorkshirepost makes me fear I’m going to find it transformed into a county of leftist whingers begging for handouts.”
The peer later insisted his tweet was a criticism of the newspaper, not the people of Yorkshire.
The peer is a long-time ally of Boris Johnson, and as City Hall aviation advisor worked on the then-mayor’s doomed ‘Boris Island’ airport plan in the Thames Estuary.
The Met Police are studying 300 photos and have issued questionnaires to more than 50 people, including Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, asking them to explain their involvement in Partygate.
Boris Johnson - who attended up to six of the 12 events being probed by police - handed his form back to Scotland Yard on the Friday before last.
Police will now decide whether to issue the Prime Minister with a fixed penalty notice - which would be an admission that he committed a criminal offence, but would not be a criminal conviction.
Mr Johnson could challenge a fixed penalty notice through the magistrates’ courts, but if he lost the case he would get a criminal record.
The Prime Minister has refused to say if he will quit if given a fine, but allies have suggested he will try to cling to power.
It comes after claims emerged on Sunday that the No10 Christmas party on 18 December 2020 - one of 12 events probed by police - was “carnage” with staff spraying red wine on walls, according to reports.
No 10 staff were said to have been photographed “sitting on each other’s laps” despite strict social distancing rules being in place.
But Met Police deputy commissioner Sir Stephen House has played down the raucousness of the gatherings.
He told City Hall's police and crime committee last week: “I think maybe people have the idea that there’s tipsy revellers walking down Whitehall with Christmas hats on and blowing poppers, carrying bottles of clanking wine.
"Many of the circumstances that we’re investigating were events that took place at the end of the working day or as an adjunct to the working day.”
