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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Politics
Ashley Cowburn

Scotland Yard 'considering' Partygate video footage over Covid rule breaking

Scotland Yard is "considering" Partygate footage revealed by The Mirror showing Tories at a lockdown rule-bending Christmas bash.

The previously unseen footage shows staff dancing, crashing into a buffet table, and mocking pandemic-era laws at Conservative Campaign Headquarters in central London.

The event was held in December 2021 when the capital was subject to strict restrictions and at least 24 revellers were there - including two named on Boris Johnson's resignation honours.

In the exclusive footage, two dancers even twirl past a sign saying “Please keep your distance”.

A Scotland Yard spokesperson said on Sunday: “We are aware of the footage and are considering it.”

The Mirror published a photograph of the event in December 2021 but a Metropolitan Police probe concluded last year that the “photo by itself is not sufficient evidence on which to assess that an offence had been committed”.

A spokesman for the Met said at the time: “The investigation reviewed all the material thoroughly and, after careful consideration, it was determined that there was insufficient evidence to disprove the version of events provided by attendees to a standard that would meet the threshold required.”

It comes after the Tory minister Michael Gove was forced to issue an apology on Sunday for the event, describing it as "terrible" and "indefensible".

The senior Cabinet minister said the footage is "completely out of order" - but declined to be drawn into whether the Metropolitan Police should launch a new probe.

Mr Gove told Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday show: "I want to apologise to everyone who, looking at that ... will think these people are flouting the rules designed to protect us all."

On Sunday a spokesperson for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group also hit out at the footage showing Tory activists living in "a parallel universe".

Amos Waldman, who lost his grandmother in April 2020, told Times Radio: "I was appalled and sickened by the video.

"It's not a huge surprise given we know what was happening, but the imagery of it was pretty powerful, and completely at odds with what the rest of the country and certainly we as bereaved families and our loved ones were going through at the time."

He added: "It's like a parallel universe and to be honest, it's difficult to comprehend how they can act in such a care-free manner, given what the rest of the country was going through.

"To think of these people who were celebrating, just oblivious to what was going on around them and putting other people's lives in danger, which is, you know, one of the worst aspects of this because we all complied with the rules".

Labour's Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting added: “People followed the rules at great personal pain and sacrifice.

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