Angela Rayner says people have the “right to know”, but the Met rules out naming anyone fined over parties.
Image source, PA Media
Labour has warned the government not to “hide” the names of anyone who is fined for breaking Covid rules by attending parties in Downing Street during lockdowns.
The prime minister’s spokesman has refused to “speculate” on whether any potential punishments of Boris Johnson or officials would be made public.
And the Metropolitan Police has ruled out itself naming any wrongdoers.
But Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said the public had a “right to know”.
The Met Police is currently looking into 12 gatherings in Downing Street and Whitehall which took place during lockdowns and other Covid restrictions.
The force said it would not identify individuals if anyone is issued with a fixed-penalty notice – but added that it would reveal the total number of penalties issued for each identified event, and explain what they were issued for.
Sue Gray, the senior civil servant whose initial report on gatherings held over the pandemic was published on Monday, handed over the details of her findings to the Met last week.
Meanwhile, several Conservative MPs have told the BBC they are struggling to decide whether to back Mr Johnson or call for him to go.
But ministers have defended the prime minister, who has promised an overhaul of Downing Street, with Mr Johnson’s deputy, Dominic Raab saying he had “taken responsibility” and “acted in good faith at all times”.
If those who attended the events in No 10 – including drinks in the garden on 20 May 2020 and a surprise birthday party for the PM on 19 June that year – are found to have broken the Covid rules in place at the time, they could face fixed-penalty notices and fines.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said he would not “speculate” on whether any such details would be made public by the government, describing such a situation as “hypothetical”.
He added that the Met’s “important work” had to continue unimpeded and that there would be more information “in the coming days” about Downing Street restructures.
However, Ms Rayner tweeted: “I can’t believe this needs saying. The public have a right to know if the prime minister is found to have committed an offence by the police.
“Number 10 said they would publish the full [Gray] report. They cannot be allowed to backtrack or hide the results of the police investigation.”
This video can not be played
To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
The Met announced last Tuesday that it was investigating the gatherings in Downing Street and, on Friday, said it wanted “minimal reference to be made” for the time being in Ms Gray’s report to the ongoing police inquiries, so as not to “prejudice” their outcome.
Ms Gray published a restricted version of her findings on Monday, blaming a “failure of leadership” for rule breaking in Downing Street.
There are calls for her full findings to be made public after the Met ends its investigation.
In a statement to the Commons on Monday, Mr Johnson promised to carry out a review of the Civil Service code of conduct and bring in measures to improve the way government works.
But Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP are calling for him to resign, with some Tory MPs doing the same.
One of them, Sir Gary Streeter, told BBC Devon he was “wrestling with my conscience” over what to do next, adding: “I think the mood is mixed following the Sue Gray report… A lot of us are thinking very seriously about what we should do about it.”
Another Conservative MP, Aaron Bell, told BBC Radio Stoke: “A lot of my colleagues and to some extent myself feel we owe our election to that Boris of 2019.
“So some people think we need to keep Boris Johnson because he has a unique bond with people… and there are some people who think that bond has been broken irrevocably by what’s gone on here.
“So there is a very live discussion among colleagues about what the right thing to do is.”
Sue Gray’s interim report has not led to a flood of Tory MPs turning on the prime minister. There were some – but not enough yet to threaten Boris Johnson’s position.
Although some MPs were deeply unimpressed by the PM’s performance in the Commons on Monday, his address to his party later in the evening seems to have gone down a lot better.
But that doesn’t mean the prime minister can declare victory.
Some Tories fear that there will be a slow drip of difficult moments for the prime minister. He’s now facing a police investigation about what went on in on in his flat. There is likely to be a second Sue Gray report after that – which won’t face the constraints of having to leave out details of what the Met was investigating.
Boris Johnson will spend the coming days talking about whatever else he can. Ukraine today, levelling up tomorrow.
But the shadow of partygate isn’t going away. Boris Johnson has survived – but will he recover?
Tory peer and former minister Lord Duncan urged Mr Johnson to resign and stand for re-election if he wants to remain in office, telling the Daily Record that he should “put himself before the people who put him there in the first place”.
Former defence secretary Liam Fox told the BBC News Channel: “People are upset that the sacrifices they made don’t appear to have been followed [in government].”
But he also said: “If we talk about this all day, every day, when there’s nothing new in terms of evidence, then it becomes a bit futile.”
Mr Raab told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “[The PM] recognised that, as Sue Gray said, the standards expected in No 10 were not as they should have been.
“He said he did take responsibility and he apologised, and he provided a plan of action.
“But if you look at the big judgement calls… the prime minister has got these right. This government has got a plan.”
Asked if Mr Johnson had admitted to breaking any of the rules himself, Mr Raab said: “The prime minister has been very clear that he acted in good faith at all times.”