Ex-Police Chief Questions Why Officers Stood Down as Boris ‘Blatantly’ Broke Lockdown

LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 11: A police officer knocks on the door of number 10, Downing S
Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images
Nathaniel Charles

A Former Manchester Police Chief has demanded to know why the Metropolitan Police haven’t investigated the government’s alleged repeated breach of Covid restrictions.

Sir Peter Fahy, the former chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, questioned why London’s Metropolitan Police have failed to hold the government to account for allegedly breaking coronavirus restrictions throughout the pandemic.

Speaking in an interview with The Times, Fahy demanded to know how the Met was able to ignore multiple alleged government ‘party’ events occurring when restrictions were in place in a building closely monitored by police for security reasons.

“Just the sheer number of people going in — there’s that issue of professional curiosity. Surely somebody needed to have a quiet word to say ‘what’s going on’? That’s the bit that a lot of the public need to understand”, Fahy said.

Questions were also raised by Fahy about the “professional curiosity” of the Met, with the implication being if officers are legitimately unable to detect a potential party going on in Downing Street, they may be unable to detect a security threat.

The former Chief Constable additionally highlighted the hypocrisy of the Met allegedly choosing to turn a blind eye to sometimes “blatant” government breaches while simultaneously fining others in central London for breaking coronavirus restrictions.

“If nothing else, was it raised as a concern with the authorities? Because on the other side of that big [Downing Street] gate, other officers are stopping people on the street and fining them for Covid breaches”, Fahy highlighted to The Times.

Fahy’s words came amid an email surfacing from the Prime Minister’s Principal Private Secretary Martin Reynolds which was sent to over 100 Downing Street employees on May 20th, 2020, inviting them to “socially distanced drinks in the No10 garden”.

The email also suggested that the attendees “bring your own booze!”. It is claimed the email was deleted from Number 10’s computer system, but ITV News has managed to obtain a copy.

ITV reports that the Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie Johnson, née Symonds, as well as 40 staffers, gathered in Number 10’s garden for the party mentioned in Reynolds’ email.

On the 20th of May 2020, the same day this party allegedly took place, Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary at the time, repeatedly emphasised that people should stick to the lockdown rules, saying phrases such as: “stay at home as much as possible”, “work from home if you can”, and “limit contact with other people”.

There have been multiple accusations of rulebreaking levelled against the party of government, from disgruntled former Chief Advisor Dominic Cummings, to anonymous sources supplying photographic evidence of potentially lockdown-buster events taking place.

As a consequence of these breeches being exposed there have been several resignations: former government advisor Allegra Stratton, former Health Secretary Matt Hancock, former London Mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey and former government advisor Professor Neil Ferguson to name a few, but the Metropolitan Police have so far taken no major action against them.

In an apparent justification for their lack of investigation, the Met have previously said that it is inappropriate for them to retrospectively investigate alleged breaches of lockdown.

The Met has however released a statement on the 11th of January 2021 saying: “The Metropolitan Police service is aware of widespread reporting relating to alleged breaches of the Health Protection Regulations at Downing Street on 20 May 2020 and is in contact with the Cabinet Office”.

The Labour Party’s leader, Sir Kier Starmer, urged Johnson to “finally come clean” about his hypocrisy to the British public, and end his “deflections and distractions” which Starmer branded as “absurd”.

Conservative MP and former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence People and Veterans and Johnny Mercer has apologised to his constituents over the governments alleged repeated breaches and branded the whole ordeal “humiliating”.

 

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