A former Conservative candidate for London mayor has resigned from a committee role after it was revealed he attended a Christmas party that likely breached Covid restrictions.
Shaun Bailey, a former London mayoral candidate for the Conservative Party, has resigned from his position as chairman of the police and crime committee in the London Assembly.
Bailey’s resignation on Wednesday comes after evidence emerged that he attended a party in the Conservative Party headquarters in London during December of last year.
The party was held during a period of strict lockdown measures in the capitol, with the BBC reporting that inter-household mixing was banned at the time.
In a statement given to Sky News, the Greater London Authority Conservatives gave Bailey’s reasoning for his resignation.
“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,” the statement read.
A separate statement from a Conservative Party spokesman also claimed that four staff members had been formally disciplined over the incident.
As of writing, Bailey has not resigned his seat in the London Assembly.
Bailey’s resignation over the party comes as questions swirl regarding similar gatherings allegedly held in No 10 last year, despite lockdown measures.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been reported to the police regarding the allegations, despite the fact that Johnson has insisted that regulations were followed in No 10 at all times.
“The Prime Minister doesn’t deny there was a Downing Street Christmas party last year. He says no rules were broken.” Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said during Prime Minister’s Questions earlier in the month. “Both of those things can’t be true.”
Others have also accused the PM of trying to distract from his alleged contraventions of Covid rules by implementing severe restrictions in England, ostensibly with the aim of tackling the new Omicron variant.
Former Chief Advisor Dominic Cummings has accused Johnson of using the measures as part of a “dead cat” tactic, in which a more dramatic story is deployed in order to draw attention away from another, less interesting one.
“Any Cabinet Minister who supports [Johnson announcing] Plan B today in *lunatic* attempt to dead cat the parties is defending the indefensible [sic],” Cummings said in relation to the new measures.
Meanwhile, Brexit leader Nigel Farage has also accused the prime minister of using the “convenient” Omicron variant to distract from the issue and has questioned Johnson’s ‘moral authority’ to rule regarding the new restrictions.
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