Explainer-in-brief: The final act of No10’s Partygate?
Yesterday, it was perhaps the beginning of the end of Partygate. The Met Police investigation was closed, with a final verdict of 126 fines issued to 83 people. There were no additional fines for Boris Johnson. By the end of it, the investigation – called Operation Hillman – cost £460,000.
Yet we’re still waiting for the Sue Gray report, which might be published as early as next week.
For those who might have forgotten – after all, it’s been five months – senior civil servant Sue Gray was tasked with leading an internal government investigation into the parties in Downing Street that took place from May 2020 to April 2021, when lockdown rules forbade socialisation.
When the Met announced it was going to investigate the parties too, Sue Gray had to pause the publication of her full report – which can now finally come out. So much time has passed from when the term Partygate was coined, however, that the report will likely not cause as much furore as it would have months ago.