Boris Johnson warned Tories will be punished at the polls over partygate scandal

Boris Johnson has been warned the Conservatives will “reap the whirlwind” of the No 10 lockdown parties saga at the ballot box next month as the threat of more police fines hangs over him. Former Tory minister Steve Baker told The Daily Telegraph the partygate scandal could hurt the Tories at the local elections on May 5, with his constituents expressing “fury” at reports of lockdown breaches in Downing Street. It comes after the influential backbencher turned on the Prime Minister in the Commons earlier this week, telling MPs the Conservative Party leader should have realised the “gig’s up” after the Metropolitan Police concluded he had breached his own coronavirus rules.

“People lived under barbaric rules. "They were told that if they deviated one iota from the law they would kill people. And they suffered for it,” Mr Baker, who hinted that he had submitted a letter of no confidence in the Prime Minister, told the newspaper.

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“Meanwhile in No 10, where they should have been obeying both the letter and spirit of the rules, clearly they breached both. It’s been a disaster and I fear we will reap the whirlwind on polling day.” It comes after reports by ITV that fine notices have started landing in the email inboxes of officials who attended a “bring your own bottle” drinks do in the Downing Street garden on May 20, 2020, during England’s first Covid lockdown when indoor and outdoor gatherings were banned.

On Friday evening, No 10 said Mr Johnson, who has admitted attending but insisted he “believed implicitly that this was a work event”, has not received notice of a fine in relation to the gathering. But with the PM having already