The primary investigation into the scandal by senior civil servant Sue Gray concluded at the end of January 2022, but the Metropolitan Police are continuing to look into whether 12 parties held at Downing Street and other government offices broke the law, according to the BBC. Their investigation includes parties that Boris Johnson himself attended, and even the” virtual Christmas quiz” may now become a target of the investigation after an image showing Johnson near an open bottle of champagne at the event was published by the Daily Mirror in early February 2022.
“The [Met] previously assessed this [trivia] event and determined that on the basis of the evidence available at that time, it did not meet the threshold for criminal investigation,” the police said in a statement. “That assessment is now being reviewed.”
Ironically, the police investigation might have helped Johnson weather the scandal, at least initially — their involvement meant that Gray’s report on the parties had to withhold details pertaining to the subject of their inquiries, according to The New York Times.
