Image source, Getty Images

More than 50 fixed penalty notices have been issued over lockdown events in No 10 and Whitehall.

Additional fines could still be issued as a result of the Metropolitan Police investigation but Boris Johnson, his wife Carrie and Chancellor Rishi Sunak are among those already issued with a fixed penalty notice over a gathering at Downing Street in June 2020.

The BBC is aware of two other events that have led to fixed penalty notices so far:

• A civil servant's leaving party on 18 June 2020 - the government's former head of ethics, Helen MacNamara, confirmed she had received a fine over this
• Another leaving party for the former No 10 director of communications James Slack on 16 April 2021 - sources confirmed to the BBC they had received fines

The Met's inquiry, called Operation Hillman, has been examining 12 gatherings in total, so there are nine more gatherings that could result in fines.

Johnson attended at least two other gatherings under investigation:

• 20 May 2020 in the Downing Street garden
• 13 November 2020 on the departure of a special adviser

Police have also been investigating a separate gathering on 13 November 2020 held in the Downing Street flat where the PM and his wife live, but it is not confirmed that Johnson attended.

Image source, HoC

It's been a busy day already in Westminster - so here is a recap of what is going on.

What's happened?

We started the day with the government planning to table an amendment to the Labour motion to refer the PM to the privileges committee over whether he misled parliament on parties.

But before the debate even got started, the government dropped its motion, and said it would allow its MPs a free vote on the opposition motion.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer opened the debate, saying it was based on the principle that "telling the truth in politics matters", while the SNP's Ian Blackford called for Tories to show "moral fibre" and vote for the new inquiry.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said the PM had been "profoundly damaging" for the country's trust in politicians, while Tory backbencher Steve Baker said Boris Johnson should know "the gig's up".

What's happening now?

The debate is continuing, although the government benches are looking quite thin with many of the speakers coming from the opposition.

The PM has spoken from India, where he is on a visit, to say that he does not want "any absence of scrutiny", but he says it should wait for the end of the police inquiry.

What's happening later?

We are expecting a vote to take place at 17:00 BST, with the motion expected to pass - meaning the PM's words will be investigated by the Commons privileges committee.

Helen Morgan, a Liberal Democrat MP who gained her seat after Owen Paterson resigned, says that her by-election victory shows British people do care about standards in public life.

Paterson quit after being found guilty of breaking parliamentary rules on lobbying - trying to influence government policy - in return for money.

She says night after night, ministers and the PM reminded people of the importance of following the Covid laws.

The PM has "irrevocably damaged" trust in politicians, she says, and "it makes a mockery of all of us to suggest he did not understand his own rules".

Paula Baker, a Labour MP, says "there is such a thing as society, and it's been on show each and every day of the pandemic".

She says the PM told people they must stay apart, and "people bit the bullet of loneliness and separation" as a result.

"What the British people are now struggling to overcome is that the prime minister is unable to overcome the very sacrifices that they themselves made," she says. "No person like that is fit to be prime minister of this country".

Image source, HoC

Conservative Andrew Mangnall, MP for Totnes, says he still has a letter of no confidence in the prime minister in with Sir Graham Brady of the 1922 Committee.

"Every day that I see issues and rules broken in this place only reaffirms my belief that we have to stand up in this place and make it clear that dishonesty, inaction and misleading of the house cannot be tolerated, from anyone," he says.

He says he does forgive the PM for making mistakes - "but not for misleading the house as I see it".

Mangnall says he welcomes the motion and looks forward to its findings, adding: "I look forward to making sure that those who do come after the prime minister in many years to come will also learn from this that the conventions of the house must be respected".

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in India on a trade visit. He spoke to the BBC's Ben Wright about events taking place in the Commons today.

He says he doesn't "want to have any absence of scrutiny" and he thinks "we should wait until the conclusion of the [police] inquiry".

"We had two hours on this on Tuesday," and there was more debate in the House of Commons on the matter yesterday, he says.

"I've apologised for the fixed penalty notice that I received," he states.

"We'll get Sue Gray's final words on this later," he says, and "until then, not a lot of this is very useful".

Image source, Hoc

Conservative MP Peter Aldous tells the Commons that "this situation is completely unprecedented".

He says in 2005, when Labour MP Stephen Byers was also being referred to the Privileges Committee, then Labour frontbencher Geoff Hoon urged MPs to vote not along party political lines, but as they felt was right.

"In this instance, the stakes are much, much higher," he states, but he says the case of Stephen Byers should be learned from in this instance.

He says for this case, it should be that the Privileges Committee can investigate.

Downing Street says Boris Johnson would have "no concerns" with a Commons committee investigating whether he lied to MPs.

The prime minister's press secretary says Johnson was involved in the decision not to push on with a delaying motion, saying he would have been in contact with the chief whip.

She says: "He would have no concerns with this issue being considered by the committee. The most important thing is for MPs to have the full facts at their disposal.

"That's why it should take place after the conclusion of the Met's investigation."

Image source, Getty Images

While the current debate in the Commons chamber concerns the prime minister's actions and words, Boris Johnson isn't the only front-line politician to be fined over a birthday gathering at Downing Street in June 2020.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak says he is "extremely and sincerely sorry" for the hurt he caused by his attendance at that gathering.

Sunak, in Washington for the spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund, says he respects the decision of the police to issue him with a fixed penalty notice (FPN) but adds he has never considered resigning over the issue.

"I paid the FPN straightaway and I am extremely and sincerely sorry for the hurt and the anger that this has caused so many people," he tells the BBC. "I have always acted, I believe, in good faith in regard to what I said to Parliament."

While many of those standing up in the Commons debate have been criticising Boris Johnson, there have been a handful of Conservatives giving him his support.

Alex Stafford praised the changes the PM has made in the running of Downing Street since partygate stories broke, adding: "I am a Christian myself... this is a Christian country.

"And forgiveness is the core of what we believe in, what this country believes."

Danny Kruger also spoke in his defence "because somebody has to".

He said while he acknowledged "how big a mistake" his leader had made over the parties, he said the PM had not lied to the House, adding: "Patently he didn't break the law deliberately."

Image source, HoC

Plaid Cymru's Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts says the government "lives in hope" that the public will forget what has happened.

"The prime minister's behaviour will not be forgotten," she states - saying this is because so many lost family and loved ones during the pandemic.

Today is a chance for all members to "correct the record," she says.

73% of the public would support a law which criminalises politicians who lie in their public role, she says.

"We work in an institution where we can't call out the lies of another member," she says of parliament. "Lies are broadcast around the country, recorded for posterity" and there's no way to counter this, she argues.

"The ministerial code has proven not worthy of the paper on which it was written," she adds.

PM ends week in far weaker positionpublished at 13:54 British Summer Time 21 April 2022

13:54 BST 21 April 2022

Nicholas Watt
Political editor, BBC Newsnight

The U-turn that saw the government drop its amendment to delay the vote on referring the PM to the privileges committee was a very late decision.

One person who was involved said as late as 07:30 this morning the plan was still to go ahead.

We know there were discussions and differences of opinion within government, with one member of the cabinet saying they spoke to Boris Johnson last night to tell him to "roll over and accept" the Labour motion - and the PM agreed.

But then a few hours later, the whips tabled the amendment anyway.

So why did they change their mind and drop it minutes before the debate? As ever in politics, one simple word explains everything - numbers.

The numbers were moving against Johnson with signs of a growing rebellion from backbench MPs.

The feeling was the PM was making them "do an Owen Paterson" over again - where Tories were famously told to vote in favour of letting the former Conservative MP off the hook over an investigation into paid lobbying.

But overall this change suggests the prime minister ends the week in a far weaker position.

The Metropolitan Police will not be issuing any further updates about the investigation into parties at Downing Street until after the May elections.

The force says the investigation will still continue during this time - so fines could in theory be issued.

But due to restrictions over communications in the run-up to an election, it will not issue updates.

Image source, HoC

Green MP Caroline Lucas says the prime minister has "sealed his place in history" as the first prime minister to be fined by police while in office.

She says the prime minister is holding both Parliament and the public "in contempt".

"Being able to trust our ministers, and above all the prime minister, matters in this place," she says.

"If you hollow out the scrutiny process because the answers could be lies, you hollow out" Parliament, she warns.

She says that the whole state of affairs has shown that the system for upholding the ministerial code needs reform.

"Old boys' club rules that simply assume honour are manifestly not adequate," she says, adding that there should be other systems in place to ensure the prime minister is not the sole person in charge of the ministerial code.

Steve Baker tells the story of a constituent who didn't get to see his wife of 50 years in a care home before she died, because of lockdown rules.

"What am I to say to that man?" the Tory MP asks. "I could say... you and I are Christian men and forgiveness is hard.

"[But] I don't want to forgive him. I do not want to forgive our prime minister."

After further blistering condemnations of the boss he says he helped get into power, the Tory MP says if he was in any other job, the PM would be "long gone".

He adds: "Having watched the contrition... it only lasted as long as it took to get out of the headmaster's study, and that's not good enough for me, and that's not good enough for my voters.

"I have to say now the possibility [of forgiveness] has gone... and for not obeying the letter and the spirit, the prime minister now should be long gone.

"The prime minister should just know the gig's up."

Earlier in the week, senior Tory and former Brexit minister Steve Baker said he was "deeply moved" by the PM's apology in the Commons and wanted to forgive him.

He repeats that sentiment today, but says "that spirit of earnest willingness to forgive lasted about 90 seconds" into a meeting Boris Johnson held with his backbenchers later the same day.

"[It was] an orgy of adulation, a great festival of bombast, and I cannot bear these things," says Baker.

"This level of transgression, this level of demand for forgiveness requires more than an apology drawing a line under it and moving on in the way the prime minister sought to do in his interviews."

He says both Johnson and his advisers "need to understand this is a permanent stone in his shoe" and those who want to forgive him "want to see permanent contrition".

Image source, HoC

Returning to the present, and Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has told the Commons the prime minister has been "profoundly damaging" to the country's trust in politicians.

He says it is "time Conservative MPs listened to the British people".

He has met business owners, he says, who lost their livelihoods in lockdown because they followed the rules stringently.

"The fact that Conservative MPs have let the prime minister get away with all this until now speaks volumes about them," he states.

He says it will be the "patriotic duty of every voter" to vote against the Conservatives in future local and general elections.

As we reported earlier, the SNP's Ian Blackford has called Boris Johnson a liar during the debate.

Normally an MP is required to withdraw such an accusation towards a fellow member of the Commons or be ejected from the chamber by the speaker, as Blackford was himself in January.

But for this debate Sir Lindsay Hoyle said it is "perfectly in order for honourable members to question the veracity of the prime minister's responses to the House cited in the motion".

However, it is not in order for MPs to question his truthfulness more generally or in relation to other matters.

Labour MP Chris Bryant is now up. He chairs the privileges committee, which would carry out the investigation if the motion is passed, but Bryant has recused himself from the probe so no-one accuses it of bias.

He says it is for MPs to "burnish not tarnish the reputation of this House", listing the offences and suspensions of numerous members, including two who have been convicted by the courts.

At the same time, he says, "two of our colleagues have been murdered and others are wearing stab vests".

He says there are bigger issues at play in politics than the PM's actions in the Commons, including in Ukraine and with the cost of living crisis.

But he says they are "not alternatives" and "at a moment of national and international crisis" the UK needs a leader "of completely and utterly impeachable moral authority" - so the inquiry must go ahead.