Boris Johnson is going through a attainable police interview over lockdown breaches in Downing Road because the Metropolitan police mentioned they supposed to start out questioning witnesses after sending out questionnaires to greater than 100 individuals.
However the police assertion – issued two months since inquiries started – suggests officers haven’t but discovered breaches that meet the evidentiary threshold for fixed-penalty notices to be issued with out additional interviews. No FPNs have been issued up to now, the pressure mentioned.
The replace suggests the investigation could also be a way off being concluded. The Met mentioned it “entails a major quantity of investigative materials; the serving of over 100 questionnaires and the necessity to individually assess each response”.
It added: “The offences into account comprise numerous components and the laws itself modified between the occasion dates. We’re progressing the investigation as rapidly as attainable.
“As but, we now have not made any referrals to the Acro prison data workplace for the issuing of fixed-penalty notices. Nevertheless, each questionnaire response is being assessed alongside all accessible proof, and will this attain the evidential threshold, then referrals will likely be made.”
The beginning of police interviews of key witnesses two months after police started analyzing materials from the Whitehall inquiry by the senior civil servant Sue Grey means it’s now unlikely a verdict on Johnson will likely be reached earlier than the Could native elections.
A big variety of Conservative MPs had mentioned they might not transfer to set off a vote of no confidence within the prime minister till after the police had decided whether or not his attendance at a number of events over the lockdown interval was a breach of the regulation.
Johnson has emphasised he believed the gatherings he attended had been work occasions – together with one the place his former principal personal secretary invited attendees for summer season drinks within the backyard and instructed them to deliver their very own alcoholic drinks.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, nevertheless, no less than two Conservative MPs – Douglas Ross and Andrew Bridgen – have withdrawn letters of no confidence in Johnson, saying it was not the time for a management contest.
A variety of senior Conservatives who’ve urged they might transfer towards the PM ought to the police challenge a high-quality have now additionally urged they imagine a no-confidence problem could be misplaced. Different critics of the prime minister inside the events say they continue to be satisfied {that a} vote of no confidence will likely be triggered ought to he be discovered to have breached the regulation.