A prominent London Conservative, ex-London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey has stepped down from his post in the London Assembly after The Mirror published photos of him and his aides gathering for a Christmas party amid stringent coronavirus restrictions last year.
The event, organised by Bailey's mayoral campaign, reportedly took place on 14 December 2020, as Londoners were banned from indoor meetings unless they were work meetings.
Yet, in the photos published by the tabloid, Bailey can be seen together with more than a dozen aides and donors (at least 24 people altogether), wearing Christmas jumpers and surrounded by huge amounts of food and drinks.
The news of the unfortunate gathering comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson was himself blasted for allowing a Christmas party to take place on Downing Street in 2020, allegedly breaking the restrictions the government had imposed.
Johnson's ratings have since hit an all-time low.
Johnson was also criticised for allegedly holding a Christmas quiz for his staffers. While the prime minister stressed there were no violations, since it was a virtual quiz, a report in The Mirror emerged, suggesting that Downing Street staff was told to "go out the back" when they left.
But the reports said, citing sources, that the staff stayed on for two hours after the quiz for drinks and chatting.
The newspaper also found out the names of the teams participating in the quiz, including "Professor Quiz Whitty", "Rebels without a Claus", and "Hands, Face, First Place".