The event took place on the 14 December 2020, at a time when indoor household mixing was banned.
Billionaire Tory donor and property developer Nick Candy has been pictured alongside former Tory mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey at a Christmas Party last year, when London was under tier 2 Covid restrictions.
An exclusive picture obtained by the Mirror shows Bailey and Candy with a tightly packed group of Tory staff at the party posing for a picture, where a smiling Bailey is stood next to Candy, who is shown raising a glass of wine.
The event took place on the 14 December 2020, at a time when indoor household mixing was banned.
Following publication of the images, Bailey has since quit as chair of the London Assembly’s police and crime committee.
The GLA Conservatives said in a statement: “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.”
They added: “”He will continue to speak up for Londoners who no longer feel safe in our city and push for a strategy to tackle the disproportionate level of crime in London’s black community.”
A Conservative Party spokesman said: “Senior CCHQ (Conservative Campaign Headquarters) staff became aware of an unauthorised social gathering in the basement of Matthew Parker Street organised by the Bailey campaign on the evening of December 14.
“Formal disciplinary action was taken against the four CCHQ staff who were seconded to the Bailey campaign.”
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said that Mr Bailey’s position as chair of the police and crime committee had been “untenable”.
“This is damning new evidence of a party, with a buffet, drinks, Christmas attire and absolutely no social distancing held at Conservative Party HQ,” she told the Daily Mirror.
While much of the focus will be on Bailey, the attendance of Candy has not gone unnoticed.
James O’Brien tweeted: “Shaun Bailey will get the headlines but what on earth is billionaire Tory donor & property developer Nick Candy doing there?”
Another social media user wrote: “Of course billionaire Tory Donor Nick Candy was there. Rules don’t apply to billionaires either right?
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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