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LONDON , 20 May (AP) \u2014 Britain\u2019s Metropolitan Police says it has concluded its investigation into breaches of COVID-19 regulations at British government offices, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson\u2019s official residence, and has issued a total of 126 fines.<\/p>\n
Police said Thursday that they issued fixed-penalty notices to 53 men and 73 women for gatherings that took place on eight dates between May 2020, at the height of the first wave of the U.K.\u2019s pandemic, and April 2021. Some people received multiple fines.<\/p>\n
The scandal, dubbed \u201cpartygate\u201d by the media, has dealt a heavy blow to Johnson\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n
The conclusion of the police investigation means that results from a separate probe by a senior civil servant, Sue Gray, can now be published. Government officials say the Gray report, which is being closely watched for the extent to which it censures Johnson and his Conservative government, will be published as soon as possible, though unlikely before next week.<\/p>\n
Johnson apologized last month after he revealed that he was among dozens of people who paid a police fine for attending lockdown-breaching parties and gatherings. That made him the first British leader to be sanctioned for breaking the law while in office.<\/p>\n
Revelations that Johnson and other senior officials gathered illegally in government buildings \u2014 including enjoying \u201cwine time Fridays\u201d reportedly organized by Johnson\u2019s staff \u2014 at a time when millions in the country stuck to strict government lockdown restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19 have angered voters and triggered calls for Johnson to resign.<\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s spokesman said Thursday he will not be receiving any more fines on top of the one he has already paid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Met has confirmed they are taking no further action\u201d against the prime minister, spokesman Max Blain said.<\/p>\n
Police do not identify the people who received fines, but Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, as well as Johnson\u2019s wife, Carrie, have said they were among those fined along with Johnson for attending a birthday party thrown for the prime minister in June 2020.<\/p>\n
Johnson has repeatedly apologized, but denied that he knowingly broke the rules. He has insisted it \u201cdid not occur\u201d to him that the gathering in his office, which he said lasted less than 10 minutes, was a party.<\/p>\n
Opposition parties reiterated their calls for Johnson to resign and said the Gray report should be published without delay.<\/p>\n
Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, said there can be \u201cno further hiding places\u201d for Johnson for the \u201cindustrial-scale lawbreaking\u201d at government sites.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat reflects a culture and the prime minister sets the culture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Starmer himself faces a police investigation over his own conduct during the pandemic \u2014 he has acknowledged he had a beer and a takeout curry with colleagues in April 2021, when the U.K. was under coronavirus restrictions. Starmer insisted that the meal was part of a working day and broke no rules.<\/p>\n
The COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group called the police fines a \u201cterrible insult\u201d to all who lost loved ones during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe nearly half a million pounds this investigation has cost could have been spent on support services for the bereaved. Instead it was spent investigating our own government, and all because they lied and failed to acknowledge they had broken the law,\u201d said Safiah Ngah, who lost her father to the virus in February 2021.<\/p>\n
More than 177,000 people have died in Britain after testing positive for the coronavirus, the highest toll in Europe after Russia.<\/p>\n
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LONDON , 20 May (AP) \u2014 Britain\u2019s Metropolitan Police says it has concluded its investigation into breaches of COVID-19 regulations at British government offices, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson\u2019s official residence, and has issued a total of 126 fines. Police said Thursday that they issued fixed-penalty notices to 53 men and 73 women for gatherings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-191204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}