Deputy Assistant Commissioner Jane Connors will oversee the Metropolitan Police’s special inquiry team in their investigation into alleged rule-breaking Downing Street parties.

Who is Ms Connors and what is the special inquiry team? Here is everything we know:

– Who is Deputy Assistant Commissioner Jane Connors?

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Jane Connors
Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Jane Connors will oversee the investigation (Met Police/PA)

Jane Connors, the Met’s lead for Covid-19,  joined the Metropolitan Police in 1993.

She began working in the east London boroughs of Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest before transferring to Westminster to run proactive crime teams, according to a profile for charity Joining Against Cancer in Kids, of which she is a trustee.

She also spent time in charge of call centres managing the Met’s 101 and 999 calls, the charity website said.

The profile says she was promoted to the rank of commander in 2018, and by 2020 was in charge of violence reduction.

By late 2021 she had attained her current rank.

– What is the special inquiry team?

The team has been in existence in a number of forms for about 20 years and carries out sensitive and confidential inquiries into matters relating to high profile figures, including those in politics.

It was originally a unit within the Economic and Serious Crime Command that dealt with fraud and corruption offences in the public sector.

But in 2013, following restructuring within the Met, the unit was transferred to the Homicide and Major Command.

Part of its role is to investigate allegations of offences committed by those in public office or on the parliamentary estate.

In the past, the special inquiry team investigated allegations of bribery, perjury, theft, misconduct in public office, perverting the course of justice, electoral fraud and malpractice, blackmail, harassment, malicious communications and offences under the Misuse of Drugs Act.