Britain’s Minister for Housing and Socioeconomic Equalization, Michael Gove, described as “terrible” and “indefensible” a Christmas party held at the headquarters of the Conservative Party during the period of confinement imposed in the United Kingdom to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
Among those in attendance at the revelry, which took place in December 2020, were then London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey and two political advisers who have been awarded honorary degrees by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The now Lord Bailey has been rewarded with a lifetime seat in the Upper House of the British Parliament despite his complicity in the Partygate scandal.
The Mirror newspaper took over the exclusive on the party months ago and is now renewing the mess with the dissemination of a convincing audiovisual document of the apparent illicit evening. In the video, which the newspaper has posted on social networks, several young people appear dancing, chatting and consuming alcohol. A couple of dancers come within a hair’s breadth of knocking over a table littered with bottles and trays of food in one scene from the film.
Of the twenty guests, some realize that they are being recorded having fun in the basement of the Conservative headquarters, when the confinement rules prohibited this type of event. “As long as we don’t broadcast (stream) we are, let’s say, breaking the rules,” a male voice is heard sarcastically saying.
Johnson’s honors list has generated anger in sectors of the conservatives and anger in the rest of society. Prime ministers enjoy the privilege of awarding distinctive imperial and parliamentary titles to collaborators and notables when they vacate Downing Street, but Johnson lost his job in the whirlwind of Partygate and is accused of awarding knighthood, lordship, ladyship or member from the Order of the British Empire to politicians, aides and advisers personally involved in the scandal.
“I want to apologize to all those who, seeing this (the video), believe that these people are violating the rules designed to protect us all,” said Minister Gove, who starred in the round of official interviews with the big television networks this Sunday.
Gove denied, however, the need for Lord Bailey and his campaign advisers to return the honors bestowed by the discredited Johnson, which have been approved by the current government. “The decision to bestow honors on people was made by Boris Johnson in his capacity as outgoing prime minister. Outgoing prime ministers have that right,” he said of a tradition that also includes the short-lived head of Liz Truss.
Johnson resigned as prime minister in July 2022, after losing the confidence of a majority of his ministers and MPs. This month he resigned his parliamentary seat days before the publication of a critical report by the Committee on Commons Privileges, which concludes that he lied to Parliament about the coronavirus holidays.
Information about the Christmas event of the conservative team of the electoral campaign for the mayoralty of London, which retained the Labor Sadiq Khan, leaked to the public last year. The Mirror was then made with a photograph in which a group of at least 24 people poses for the camera. In the center is the candidate Bailey, apparently ignorant of the rules of social distancing. The politician apologized and the party disciplined four individuals, the organization remarked this Sunday.
In turn, the Police detected no evidence that a crime had been committed based on the image leaked to the tabloid. Now the pressure is renewed to reopen the investigations.
“The Tories believe that there is one rule for them and another for everyone else,” protested Labor deputy leader Angela Rayner.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project