Top Conservative Party member reportedly walked past families who lost loved ones to Covid holding a candlelit vigil protest outside a top London hotel. They were allegedly on their way to a dinner and drinks party, hosted by Boris Johnson, just hours after the Met confirmed that Downing Street lockdown parties broke the law.
Around 200 Conservative politicians were invited to the event that, according to The Mirror was organised draw a line under the Partygate scandal.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid, Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Home Secretary Priti Patel l and Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries were among the Johnson allies at the event.
READ MORE: Boris Johnson faces tough questions over 'partygate' after fines handed out
On the menu was salmon tart, chicken thighs and a chocolate praline dessert,, before after-dinner speeches.
Tory MP Michael Fabricant brazenly told reporters "we're gonna have a lot of fun" before entering the hotel, while former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith boasted "morale's pretty good" among Conservative backbenchers.
It came after Scotland Yard confirmed 20 fines would be issued in relation to law-breaking parties at No10 and in Whitehall. The Prime Minister is not expected to be among those included in the first wave of fines, which is understood to contain the most straight-forward cases.
Jo Goodman, co-founder of the Covid 19 Families for Justice, was among those at the protest outside the Park Plaza hotel.
She told the Mirror: "It all felt pretty familiar: once again politicians are inside drinking while bereaved families are left out in the cold. It’s one year to the day since the first heart was painted on the national Covid Memorial Wall, and tonight we watched all of these Conservative MPs walk past us into a hotel where they’re apparently meant to ‘reset’ their relationship after the Partygate scandal.
"They would have done better to spend some time at the memorial wall with families to understand how much pain their rule-breaking has caused for so many of us who followed the rules and couldn’t see our loved ones. It beggars belief that they seem content to pretend nothing's happened and move on."
