The Met police will not issue partygate fines to Downing Street until after May’s local government elections in a moment of slight relief for Boris Johnson as his premiership hung in the balance.
Scotland Yard said there would be no further updates on Partygate fines for the next two weeks while council election campaigns are fought across the UK.
A Met spokesman said: “Whilst the investigation will continue during the pre-election period, due to the restrictions around communicating before the May local elections, we will not provide further updates until after 5 May.”
Downing Street is braced for the Prime Minister to be slapped with further fines for breaching lockdown after he, the chancellor and his wife Carrie were among the 50 fixed penalty notices issued last week for breaking his own emergency pandemic laws.
The move came as the Prime Minister faced the prospect of being referred to the Commons Privileges committee over whether he misled parliament by claiming no rules had been broken in Downing Street.
Tory discipline collapsed in chaos 15 minutes before the Labour debate in the Commons was due to proceed. Instead of opposing the move with their own amendment Tory party managers found they had to allow a free vote in the face of a potential mutiny from backbenchers.
Tory MPs had made it clear that they were unhappy with the government’s position and were unwilling to back it.
The motion is now likely to pass unopposed as Tory MPs fled from Westminster as the three-line whip to support the Prime Minister was abandoned.
The Prime Minister was on a trip to India while he was lashed by the opposition in the Commons with SNP leader Ian Blackford branding him “a liar” without any sanction from the Speaker.
Previously loyal Tory MPs, like Brexiteer former minister Steve Baker, withdrew their confidence.
In a sign that Johnson’s support is seeping away Baker called on the PM to quit.
He said: “The Prime Minister now should be long gone. Really, the Prime Minister should just know the gig’s up.”
Some 4,000 miles away in India Johnson insisted MPs should wait for the “full facts” before deciding whether to trigger a fresh investigation into partygate
As he kicked off a two-day trip to India, the PM tried to deflect from the Commons u-turn that saw the government allow the Labour motion to pass unopposed.
He said: “I’m very keen for every possible form of scrutiny and the House of Commons can do whatever it wants to do. But all I would say is I don’t think that should happen until the investigation is completed.”
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