Feb. 10 (UPI) —<\/span> More than 50 people will be questioned by British police as investigations into parties that were held by Downing Street during lockdown continue.<\/p>\n Scotland Yard revealed on Thursday that Operation Hillman will begin this week as police ask for the accounts of attendees.\n<\/p>\n<\/article>\n Their investigation will look into eight dates spanning from May 20, 2020, to April 16, 2021.<\/p>\n “There may also be a need to contact further people in the coming days and weeks — should they be identified as having taken part in an event and having potentially breached regulations,” police said in a statement.\n<\/p>\n A criminal investigation into the conduct of Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his staff is underway.<\/p>\n The Metropolitan police are looking into eight gatherings, examining over 500 documents and 300 images, and questioning those involved, they said.<\/p>\n Dubbed “partygate,” the criminal investigation follows an internal investigation led by civil servant Sue Gray, with the surrounding scandal dominating British headlines in recent weeks.\n<\/p>\n Many opposition lawmakers and members of his own party have called for Johnson’s resignation.<\/p>\n Johnson has apologized and promised to restructure the culture of his department.<\/p>\n He shook up his board on Wednesday after promising to make changes to his senior team. Meanwhile, many senior advisers have left their positions amid the scandal.\n<\/p>\n Police most recently announced that 50 people will be brought in and questioned about their participation — Johnson is reportedly expected to be among them.<\/p>\n There are over a dozen alleged gatherings that took place during 2020, breaking social-distancing and lockdown rules.<\/p>\n These include a Christmas event, two leaving parties for departing staff and a summer gathering in the Downing Street garden where up to 100 staffers were invited.<\/p>\n A new picture of Johnson at a Christmas event at the prime minister’s office, 10 Downing Street, also emerged recently.<\/p>\n The Dec. 15 event was not on Scotland Yard’s list of dates, but it will possibly be added to the force’s investigation, officials said.<\/p>\n Johnson’s press secretary said the event was a virtual Christmas quiz.<\/p>\n “Some of the events should not have been allowed to take place,” Gray wrote, according to ABC News.<\/p>\n “Other events should not have been allowed to develop as they did … Against the backdrop of the pandemic, when the government was asking citizens to accept far-reaching restrictions on their lives, some of the behavior surrounding these gatherings is difficult to justify,” she wrote.<\/p>\n Gray’s report on the parties will be published after the criminal investigation is over.\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 1\/5 New pictures of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at a Christmas Quiz holiday event emerged from Scotland Yard. Photo by Leszek Szymenski\/EPA-EFE Feb. 10 (UPI) — More than 50 people will be questioned by British police as investigations into parties that were held by Downing Street during lockdown continue. Scotland Yard revealed on Thursday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":984937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-984936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=984936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984936\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=984936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=984936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=984936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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New pictures of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at a Christmas Quiz holiday event emerged from Scotland Yard. Photo by Leszek Szymenski\/EPA-EFE<\/p>\n