Rishi Sunak’s attempts to move on from the legacy of Boris Johnson’s chaotic premiership have suffered another setback as police announced they were “considering” fresh Partygate video footage of an event during lock-down at Conservative HQ.
The video, obtained by the Mirror newspaper , appears to show Conservative party staff drinking alcohol and dancing on 14 December 2020 at a gathering held by the campaign team of the unsuccessful London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey, who has since been made a peer by Johnson in his resignation honours list.
The levelling up secretary, Michael Gove, apologised for the footage, calling their actions “terrible” and “indefensible”, but insisted it would not be right for him to say whether the Metropolitan police should reopen their investigation into this lock-down-breaking event.
“I just want to apologise to everyone really, who, looking at that image, will think, ‘Well, these are people who were fl outing the rules that were put in place to protect us all ,’” Gove said. However, a group representing the families of people who died of Covid19 has expressed its disgust at the video, urging the force to “absolutely reinvestigate” the incident.
In the video, Conservative offi cials Jack Smith and Malin Bogue appear to dance past a sign saying “Please keep your distance” before colliding with a table full of buff et food. In the background, someone can be heard saying: “As long as we don’t stream that we’re like, bending the rules.”
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der June 19, 2023-Ausgabe von The Guardian.
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