The UK deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab, has called for ministers who were fined for breaching Covid regulations to be named by the senior civil servant tasked with investigating the Partygate scandal. Scotland Yard’s inquiries were closed on Thursday with a total of 126 fixed penalties handed out to 83 people, as it was confirmed the prime minister would not be punished further than the £50 fine he received in April for attending his birthday party in June 2020 when indoor mixing was banned. Westminster now awaits the publication of Sue Gray’s separate report into lockdown gatherings in Downing Street and Whitehall, expected next week. Boris Johnson has overhauled his Downing Street operation ahead of the report’s release, including creating a streamlined team of officials who will work under the leadership of his permanent secretary. Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Friday, Raab said there should be “transparency” in the report about any ministers who have been fined. Asked if Downing Street was trying to prevent the civil servant from publishing individual names in her report into social events at Downing Street during pandemic lockdown restrictions, Raab said that was a matter for the police and Gray.
“I think that these are matters – who is identified – for Sue Gray and the Met,” he said. “What we have said is that it’s right that if there’s a minister who has been fined, of course there needs to be transparency around that. I think that’s right.” Earlier on Times Radio, Raab committed to publishing the report “as soon as possible” after it was received. Ken Macdonald told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme “we remain very much in the dark” about the details of Partygate.
Lord Macdonald, who is a former director of public prosecutions, said it was not known why the prime minister was fined for being at one party but not others, or why the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, was not fined. “We don’t know who these people are, and I do feel for the junior civil servants and I quite see why they would be distressed by their names being given, but there’s a wider public interest here. “This was a major scandal at the heart of government, at the heart of the civil service, and we remain very much in the dark about who was involved, who organised the parties, and who was responsible.”