The former Tory London Mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, has resigned from his post as Chair of the London Assembly’s policing and crime committee shortly after a photograph emerged showing Bailey to have attended a party, which was held in violation of last winter’s Covid restrictions. The event took place at the Conservative Party’s Westminster headquarters in December during London’s Tier Two restrictions, which prohibited the public from socialising. MailOnline has the story.
Bailey bowed to pressure this afternoon after a week of intense demands for him to quit, MyLondon reported.
Members of Downing Street staff joined the party, which included dancing into the early hours of the morning, despite Tier Two restrictions in London barring indoor socialising at the time.
Four members off Bailey’s staff are reported to have been disciplined over the “raucous” gathering, in which a door was reported to have been damaged.
An image taken on the night last December shows Bailey standing in the middle of a crowd of some 24 people huddled closely together at Conservative Party HQ, with platters of food nearby.
None of the partygoers are pictured wearing masks and some of them including billionaire Tory donor Nick Candy are seen raising their drinks to toast the night; while millions of Londoners were forced to self-isolate in line with Tier Two restrictions.
Bailey had been scheduled to chair Wednesday’s police and crime committee, where it was expected London Assembly Members would personally demand he step down.
But an email announced that City Hall Conservative leader Susan Hall would chair the committee in the interim.
A Conservative Spokesman from the Greater London Assembly said: “Shaun Bailey AM has today stood aside as Chairman of the London Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee.
“He does not want an unauthorised social gathering involving some former members of the London mayoral campaign team last December to distract from the Committee’s important work holding the Mayor of London to account.
“He will continue to speak up for Londoners who no longer feel safe in our city and push for a strategy to tackle the disproportionate level of crime in London’s black community.”
In response to Bailey’s departure, Labour’s London Assembly policing lead Unmesh Desai AM said: “Shaun Bailey still has to answer questions put to him by the Labour group.”
The Labour group has demanded to know who attended the party and whether Bailey received any gifts.
Conservative Party Chairman Oliver Dowden is said to have been “appalled” by the image showing the bash at Tory HQ.
Several hours earlier on day of the gathering, then-Health Secretary Matt Hancock had announced London would move into Tier Three restrictions.
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