Ministers played no role in handing police new Partygate information about Boris Johnson, the justice secretary said after allies of the former prime minister claimed he was the victim of a “political corset”.
Alex Chalk told GB News he had not seen the relevant information and it was now up to the police to “opinion on it” as Mr Johnson faces further allegations of possible breach of Covid rules.
The cabinet minister said: “Officers without any input from ministers, I want to stress that, took the decision to pass it on to the police.
“You were talking about fairness, I haven’t seen those documents, properly they wouldn’t pass them to me and so it’s really very difficult to say anything more, that’s now with the police and they’ll have to take a view on that.” .
The Metropolitan Police and Thames Valley Police confirmed yesterday that they were looking into meetings Johnson attended, including receiving visitors, in Downing Street and Checkers while he was prime minister.
It was prompted by the Cabinet Office handing over the diary entries which were discovered by lawyers working on Mr Johnson’s formal submission to the Covid inquiry.
A spokesman for Johnson said the allegations were “totally false” and suggested the claims had been made for “political purpose”.
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