A failed Tory mayoral candidate who attended a lockdown-flouting Christmas bash will be installed in the House of Lords within weeks as he rushes to don his ermine robe.
Shaun Bailey will become a peer for life on July 18 after being ennobled in Boris Johnson's resignation honours, sources told the Mirror.
But his elevation to the Lords is under fresh scrutiny after the Mirror published bombshell footage of a "jingle and mingle" Christmas party held by his campaign in December 2020.
The Metropolitan Police is examining the video of staff drinking and dancing at a boozy bash in the basement of Conservative HQ as part of a fresh wave of Partygate allegations.
New peers must wait for a title to be agreed and receive a legal document known as Letters Patent from the King before they can be formally introduced in the House of Lords.
All but one of Mr Johnson's seven nominees are expected to be introduced in the Lords before the summer break.
A Lords source: “The rushed introduction of Boris Johnson’s peers into the Lords does feel a bit odd – and maybe one or two people are panicking that their appointment could get scuppered somehow.
"But it could just be the Government once more loading the dice, and trying to further boost its turnout ahead of upcoming votes.”
When the Mirror first published a picture of the Christmas gathering two years ago, Mr Bailey apologised and resigned as chair of the London Assembly's police and crime committee.
He does not appear in the video and he is understood to have left the event before the footage was taken.
Amid a growing outcry, Mr Bailey apologised "unreservedly" for the bash and said he had been "very upset" when he saw the footage for the first time.
"It obviously turned into something once I'd left, I didn't realise that," he told reporters outside Parliament this week.
But he has so far resisted calls to turn down his peerage.
Downing Street declined to say whether he should take up his peerage.
The PM's press secretary said: "That is a matter for the individual. The Prime Minister has been very clear he has followed the precedent in this process."
Whether he sat as a Tory peer is "a matter for the whips office", the press secretary said.
Liberal Democrat Chief Whip Wendy Chamberlain said: "Shaun Bailey should do the right thing and agree to turn down this peerage now.
"If he refuses to do that, Rishi Sunak must finally show some backbone and confirm he will withdraw the Conservative whip from Bailey if he joins the Lords.
"Anything less would be an insult to bereaved families who followed the rules while the Conservatives broke them."
Cabinet Minister Mel Stride suggested Mr Bailey and campaign aide Ben Mallet, who received an OBE, could lose their gongs if the police take action over the party.
He said: "There are then mechanisms involving the Forfeiture Committee that can lead to changes to honours that have been given in the past. But I don't want to start pre-judging that process."
It comes as the Lib Dems demanded that Boris Johnson be kicked out of the Privy Council, the group mostly made up of current and former politicians that advises the King.
MP Wera Hobhouse wrote to Penny Mordaunt, the Lord President of the Council, to warn that the former PM is “simply not fit to hold any form of public role for a minute longer”.
She said: “What Boris Johnson did was neither right nor honourable. The idea that he should still get to refer to himself as ‘Right Honourable’ is absurd.
“Johnson has lied to the House of Commons and launched deplorable attacks on our Parliamentary democracy. It’s beyond time he faces the consequences for his actions.
“The Conservative Government must remove Johnson from the Privy Council straight away.”
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