when boris johnson declared on monday that this week was going to be crime week
we don't think this is what he had in mind the metropolitan police
this morning confirmed that they were wrapping up the party gate inquiry and they did it in quite
a confusing way which we think is worth picking apart a little bit here's what we know 83 people
have been fined for gatherings in downing street and on whitehall in total 126 fines were given
out 55 people got one fine the other 71 fines are shared between 28 people
each of whom were given between two and five fines and the met have confirmed that they didn't
ratchet up the amount of money that each person was fined for multiple offences because they
didn't think that would be fair what we know for certain is that the prime minister is one of the
55 people who only got one fine that was for his birthday party in the cabinet room his wife carrie
is another one of the 55 she was fined for the same event and rishi sunak also is one of the 55
and was fined for the same event we also now know that simon case the cabinet secretary uh who was
originally put in charge of investigating uh partygate which he eventually had to hand over to
sue gray did not get a fine despite us knowing for a fact that he was also at the prime minister's
birthday party we know boris johnson attended six events on the eight dates that the met were
investigating but for reasons best known to the metropolitan police and mr johnson's lawyers
he was only fined for one of those events which kind of takes us on to what we don't know
we don't yet know which parties resulted in which of the fines the police have only broken it down
so far by date and some dates had multiple parties that all took place on the same day we don't know
really why boris johnson was fined for his birthday party which most people agree is
one of the least egregious offences and not for some of the more serious ones that took place
in his house on his watch we don't know who the other 52 people are who have been fined
we know at least one person was fined five times but again we don't know who they are
and of course we don't yet know what is going to be in sue grey's report which is now likely
to be published next week so that brings us to what happens next once sue grey's report
has been published boris johnson is going to come to the commons possibly make a tv address as well
explaining himself and in that address he'll have to square away a number of his previous statements
chiefly considering it's been confirmed that he was at six parties and was fined for one
of them he'll have to explain his claim that he was unaware of any of the parties taking place
and they've been assured that all the rules were followed at all times now this explanation
is going to be key to the months ahead don't forget boris johnson is facing another inquiry
in parliament for having allegedly lied to the commons he's also promised in the comments
that if it was proven that rules were broken in downing street on his watch then there
would be consequences for those responsible and he'll be under pressure to give some detail on
what those consequences will be for the people who have been issued fines which
include him on top of that there's going to be a lot of questions about how he managed to get away
with just one fine when dozens of his staff were slapped with fixed penalty notices it
may seem to the public and possibly to his staff that the pm who had access to expensive private
lawyers throughout the investigation lawyers that weren't made available to his own staff
had managed to get off on a technicality now a few months ago i was told by some
insiders that in some ways the pm avoiding any more fines wouldn't actually be the
best outcome for him especially when it's all been announced today in such an opaque
borderline cryptic way it's left so many questions unanswered and left the met and number 10 open to
accusations of a whitewash and a lot of number 10 junior staff and junior civil servants are likely
to be feeling today like they've been thrown under 126 buses by their boss boris johnson's
top team might have seen the news this morning sat back in their chair breathed a sigh of relief
thankful that the nightmare of partygate was all over i think they're going to be disappointed