THE Metropolitan Police have attempted to justify why officers overlooked parties in Downing Street during lockdown which were later found to have broken the law.
Stephen House, the acting commissioner of the Met, was hauled before the London Assembly on Thursday to explain the force’s investigation into widespread lawbreaking in the heart of power during the pandemic.
Sue Gray’s damning report into parties in No 10 and Whitehall included a passage detailing how a police officer had been alerted to a party after a member of staff accidentally triggered a panic alarm but took no action to break up the gathering.
House, a former Police Scotland Chief Constable, insisted “the decisions my officers made were based on the facts and were proper”, ITV News reports.
"I think it's impossible to expect an officer to walk through a room of people and conclude whether regulations were being breached, when it's taken 12 experienced detectives to work that out" says Sir Stephen. But did the rest of us need 12 detectives to tell us the rules?
— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) May 26, 2022
In response to questions over the panic alarm incident, House said: “They walked through a couple of rooms and saw a couple of people. The officer did not engage.
“I think it's impossible to expect an officer to walk through a room of people and conclude whether regulations were being breached, when it's taken 12 experienced detectives to work that out.”
The party in question took place on December 18, 2020 and was held to mark officials’ Christmas break.
The event did result in fines in the force’s belated investigation into Downing Street partying.
House told the Assembly: “I think it's impossible to expect an officer to walk through a room of people and conclude whether regulations were being breached, when it's taken 12 experienced detectives to work that out.”
He insisted that Met officers permanently stationed outside the Prime Minister’s home are there to guard the building and its inhabitants but not to police what goes on inside.
Suspicions are growing Scotland Yard was "nobbled" in investigating Downing Street lawbreaking.
Joanna Cherry QC, the SNP MP for Edinburgh South West, said in parliament on Wednesday: "Neither I nor my Edinburgh South West constituents would wish to live in a state where the Government of the day can influence the police in the exercise of their duty to investigate without fear or favour, so we are puzzled as to why the Prime Minister did not receive questionnaires in respect of three gatherings for which other people in No 10 received questionnaires.
"We are also puzzled as to why the ABBA party in the Prime Minister’s flat has never been investigated by either Sue Gray or the Metropolitan police.
"What can be done by way of an independent investigation to assure me and my constituents that the Metropolitan police have not been nobbled?"
