Shameless Boris Johnson tonight threw a boozy bash for Tory MPs, just hours after the Met confirmed that Downing Street lockdown parties broke the law.
Top Tories walked past families who lost loved ones to Covid, who held a candlelit vigil in protest outside London's Park Plaza hotel and shouted at MPs: "Off to another party, are we?"
The Prime Minister hosted around 200 Conservative politicians for dinner and drinks as he desperately tries to shore up his leadership and draw a line under the Partygate scandal.
On the menu was salmon tart, chicken thighs and a chocolate praline dessert, for MPs to wash down with fine wines, before after-dinner speeches.
Tory MP Michael Fabricant brazenly told reporters "we're gonna have a lot of fun" before entering the hotel, while former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith boasted "morale's pretty good" among Conservative backbenchers.
It came after Scotland Yard today confirmed 20 fines would be issued in relation to law-breaking parties at No10 and in Whitehall.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid, Home Secretary Priti Patel and Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries were among the Johnson allies at the event.
Inside the posh hotel, the PM is said to have joked that Russian President Vladimir Putin's did not have to face the 1922 committee of backbench Tories and its chairman Sir Graham Brady, who is the only person who knows how many MPs have called on the PM to quit.
Jo Goodman, co-founder of the Covid 19 Families for Justice, was among those at the protest.
She told the Mirror: "It all felt pretty familiar: once again politicians are inside drinking while bereaved families are left out in the cold. It’s one year to the day since the first heart was painted on the national Covid Memorial Wall, and tonight we watched all of these Conservative MPs walk past us into a hotel where they’re apparently meant to ‘reset’ their relationship after the Partygate scandal.
"They would have done better to spend some time at the memorial wall with families to understand how much pain their rule-breaking has caused for so many of us who followed the rules and couldn’t see our loved ones. It beggars belief that they seem content to pretend nothing's happened and move on."
Ministers Jacob Rees Mogg, George Eustice and Kit Malthouse were also snapped by cameras as they made their way into the venue.
Detectives have been investigating 12 gatherings during the pandemic, including as many as six events the PM is believed to have attended.
Some Tories who had previously expressed fury at the PM's conduct indicated they could be swayed, with critic Andrew Bridgen saying the urgency of the Ukraine war may change his mind.
The Prime Minister is not expected to be among those included in the first wave of fines, which is understood to contain the most straight-forward cases.
Downing Street said the Metropolitan Police has not informed No 10 that Boris Johnson is among the people referred to the ACRO Criminal Records Office for fixed penalty notices.
It is not thought Mr Johnson is among those set to receive fines, and the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "We've said we'll update if that were to occur, but our position has not changed."
Mr Johnson is believed to be at the "bottom of the pile" as his case is politically explosive and complicated by the fact that Downing Street is his home as well as his workplace.
Earlier today, bereaved families delivered a petition calling on the government to make the National Covid Memorial Wall, which is just round the corner from the flash hotel, a permanent fixture.
