Ministers are refusing to reveal any photos taken by official No 10 photographers of unlawful gatherings held inside Downing Avenue, prompting Labour to name on Boris Johnson to “come clear and launch these photographs”.
The Cupboard Workplace refused to substantiate or deny the existence of any pictures of occasions within the cupboard room, leaving events, and a celebration within the prime minister’s Downing Avenue flat, after official photos of the gatherings have been requested underneath freedom of knowledge legal guidelines.
It mentioned disclosing such data might prejudice the investigation, and contravene the precept of “equity” underneath knowledge safety laws.
It has been reported that pictures taken by taxpayer-funded official photographers for No 10 are among the many proof handed to Sue Grey for her investigation into the events, together with one in all Johnson’s birthday gathering on 19 June 2020, the place he’s allegedly holding up a beer in the direction of the digicam in a toast.
The refusal prompted Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy chief, to demand the discharge of the pictures.
“The Downing Avenue photographer is funded by the taxpayer. The general public have each proper to see the photographs that their hard-earned cash has paid for,” she mentioned. “By blocking their publication, Boris Johnson is attempting to cowl up his personal rule breaking.
“As this authorities inflicts crippling tax hikes on working households throughout a price of dwelling disaster, the least they’ll do is be trustworthy about what that cash is being spent on. Boris Johnson should come clear and launch these photographs.”
It comes as the federal government is underneath fireplace over its lack of transparency over who has been issued with fines over the Partygate scandal. The federal government just isn’t requiring civil servants to open up to the Cupboard Workplace in the event that they obtain penalties after a police investigation. Solely Boris Johnson and Simon Case, the cupboard secretary, have dedicated to revealing whether or not they’re hit by fines.
Jill Rutter, a senior fellow on the UK in a Altering Europe thinktank, wrote on Tuesday that Partygate “shouldn’t degenerate right into a Whitehall model of Cluedo … the Met ought to cease dribbling out fines; there ought to be a dedication to call essentially the most senior civil servants and all ministers fined”.
Helen MacNamara, the previous head of propriety and ethics within the Cupboard Workplace, issued an apology after a leak named her as one of many 20 people issued with fines as a part of the Met investigation.
A leaving celebration for Kate Josephs, who ran the Covid taskforce, has additionally attracted fines within the first wave of penalty notices. Josephs is now on paid go away from her job as chief govt of Sheffield metropolis council pending an investigation and it isn’t identified whether or not she has personally obtained a effective.
Grey has the ability to call senior civil servants in her report though she could select to not use it. In her interim report, she named no names and referred solely to the “senior official whose principal operate is the direct assist of the prime minister” – considered an allusion to Martin Reynolds, the principal non-public secretary.
