A TOTAL of 126 fines have been issued to politicians and civil servants over the partygate saga.

The Metropolitan Police issued an update this morning, stating they had now concluded their investigation.

It means the long-awaited Sue Gray report can now be published, with the Prime Minister previously vowing to do so as soon as possible once the police inquiry had finished. 

In total, 126 fines were issued to 83 people - although some people received more than one fine. 

The force said the penalties were issued for eight separate events, with 28 people receiving between two and five FPNs. 

It cost the force more than £460,000. 

READ MORE: All the events across Whitehall that drew police fines

Among the fined events were the infamous "BYOB" Downing Street garden party on May 20, 2020, and a party the night before Prince Philip's funeral on April 16, 2021 where No.10 staffers broke a swing belonging to Mr Johnson's son Wilfred, and used a suitcase to smuggle drink into the building. 

More fines were issued for events on June 18 and 19, 2020; November 13, 2020; December 17 and 18, 2020 and January 14, 2021. 

The Met said it would not be disclosing the identity of those fined. 

Acting Deputy Commissioner Helen Ball, of the Met said: "There is no doubt that the pandemic impacted all of us in so many ways and strong feelings and opinions have been expressed on this particular issue.

“When Covid regulations were introduced, the Met was clear that whilst we would not routinely investigate breaches of regulations retrospectively, there may be occasions when it would be appropriate to do so.

“The information that we received with regard to the alleged breaches in Downing Street and Whitehall was sufficient to reach our criteria to begin such an investigation.

“Our investigation was thorough and impartial and was completed as quickly as we could, given the amount of information that needed to be reviewed and the importance of ensuring that we had strong evidence for each FPN referral.

“This investigation is now complete.”

READ MORE: Boris and Carrie Johnson to receive no more fines over partygate

The force said it had reconsidered its stance on not investigating retrospective Covid breaches due to the events meeting certain criteria.

These were that "There was evidence that those involved knew or ought to have known that what they were doing was an offence; where not investigating would significantly undermine the legitimacy of the law and; where there was little ambiguity around the absence of any reasonable defence." 

A statement from the force continued: "Based on the information provided to us by the Cabinet Office in January 2022 and following our own assessment, we judged these criteria had been met and so launched an investigation on 25 January 2022."

Twelve detectives examined hundreds of documents, photographs and diary entries as well as combed CCTV during the probe, dubbed Operation Hillman.

The Prime Minister and the Chancellor received fines for a birthday party to mark Mr Johnson turning 56, on June 19, 2020.