A former senior Whitehall official has confirmed she has paid a fine for a lockdown-busting party and has issued an apology. Helen MacNamara, the former deputy cabinet secretary, said she was “sorry for the error of judgment I have shown”.
She was reported to have received the fixed penalty notice (FPN) in connection with a leaving do held in the Cabinet Office on June 18 2020. Ms MacNamara, who now works for the Premier League, said: “I am sorry for the error of judgment I have shown. I have accepted and paid the fixed penalty notice.”
She was among the initial group of people to be issued with an FPN following the Metropolitan Police investigation into Downing Street and Whitehall parties during England’s coronavirus restrictions and is the first to confirm they have paid a penalty. The Daily Telegraph reported that Ms MacNamara, who was in charge of Whitehall propriety and ethics at the time, received a £50 fine after police concluded she had broken Covid laws by attending a leaving party for Hannah Young, a Downing Street aide, who was moving to New York to take up a role with the British Consulate General.
Meanwhile, The Guardian reported others had been fined for a gathering held on the eve of the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral last year. The identities of people issued with FPNs will not be disclosed by the Met, although Downing Street has said it will confirm if either Boris Johnson or Cabinet Secretary Simon Case are handed a fine.
Ms MacNamara’s decision to confirm her penalty comes as ministers sought to play down the impact of the partygate row on Mr Johnson’s leadership. Cabinet minister Simon Hart said the “world has moved on” from the saga, while Jacob Rees-Mogg suggested Mr Johnson had not misled Parliament over the row because he had simply been repeating incorrect information provided to him by officials.
Meanwhile, No 10 still declined to say whether Mr Johnson believes coronavirus laws were broken.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “The Prime Minister wants to comment at the conclusion of the process and not at the middle of it.” Welsh Secretary Mr Hart said that “of course” the allegations of partying did not sit comfortably with him, but he dismissed calls that anyone should resign if they were issued with a penalty.
“I have 65,000 constituents in west Wales, where I represent, and they are not shy in coming forward and expressing a view about this and a number of other subjects,” he told Sky News. “And throughout all of this saga of the Downing Street parties they have said one thing very clearly, and in a vast majority they say they want contrition and they want an apology, but they don’t want a resignation.”
Mr Hart said “the world has moved on a considerable distance” and he told TalkRadio: “I think we’re now dealing with something of such seriousness and such horror (in Ukraine) that what went on maybe two years ago clearly needs to be dealt with, and should be – it’s a source of irritation for a lot of people still – but I’m glad that this thing is now coming to a conclusion.”
Brexit opportunities minister Mr Rees-Mogg suggested Prime Minister Mr Johnson had been handed incorrect information about the gatherings before he told MPs no rules had been broken. “The Prime Minister said that he was told the rules were followed, but that turns out not to be correct and we know that fines have now been issued, but the Prime Minister can only work on the information he is given,” he told LBC.
Mr Rees-Mogg also defended his dismissal of the partygate row as “fluff” in the context of the war in Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis. He said some of the coronavirus restrictions imposed during lockdown were “inhuman”.
“I think those words in the context of what’s going on in Ukraine are completely reasonable,” he said. “I don’t think the issue of what may or may not have happened in Downing Street and what we are now finding out is fundamental.
“What I think is fundamental is that we look in the (Covid-19) inquiry at how the rules were devised and the effect that they had, because I think some of those rules were inhuman.”
But the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “I think at all times the Government took action to save both lives and livelihoods and that was always a balanced judgment that sought to be informed by the latest evidence we had.”
The Met is investigating 12 events, including as many as six that Mr Johnson is said to have attended, and has sent out more than 100 questionnaires to people allegedly involved. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Mr Johnson “not only misled the public about this, he has presided over widespread criminality in his home and his office and that is why I am convinced he is unfit for office”.
He called for the names of all senior officials fined for Downing Street parties to be made public.
