PM and Chancellor ‘broke Covid laws’
AWOMAN who lost her husband at the start of the coronavirus pandemic yesterday bitterly criticised the Prime Minister and the Chancellor, as they were issued with fixed penalty notices for breaking lockdown rules.
Denise O’Leary, who lives near Plymouth, lost her builder husband, Des, in March 2020, shortly before the first lockdown. “We have never been able to have a proper funeral for him,” she said. “I couldn’t do all the things I would normally have done to help me get through the loss – but I stuck to the rules because I thought it was the right thing to do for the good of the country.”
Denise said she was “disgusted” when she learned the Prime Minister and the Chancellor had both attended parties while she and her family endured lockdown – and then lied to Parliament and to the British people. “Even my eight-year-old grandson was denied a birthday party,” she said. “Yet the people who made the rules, broke the rules. It’s shameful... contemptible.”
Her comments were echoed by the bereaved across Britain, as the Metropolitan Police confirmed 30 additional fines had been issued for illegal parties across Downing Street and Whitehall. The Prime Minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, is among those to have been issued with a ticket.
Mr Johnson last night told broadcasters he now “humbly accepts” he breached regulations and offered a “full apology”.
But Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said both Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak should quit following the confirmation, which has come while MPs are away from Westminster on a twoweek Easter recess. Sir Keir said: “Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak have broken the law and repeatedly lied to the British public. They must both resign.”
BORIS Johnson has paid a fine for attending his birthday bash in Downing Street and offered a “full apology” for the lockdown-busting event.
The Prime Minister said it “did not occur” to him that the gathering in the Cabinet Room on June 19 2020 to mark his 56th birthday was a violation of coronavirus rules.
But he said that after being issued with a fine as part of a Metropolitan Police investigation into alleged parties at the heart of the Government during the pandemic he “now humbly accepts” he did breach Covid-19 laws.
Scotland Yard, according to a statement published by No 10, said Mr Johnson was fined because “on June 19 2020 at the Cabinet Room .... between 1400 and 1500” he had been part of “a gathering of two or more people indoors”, which was banned at the time.
Mr Johnson told broadcasters at Chequers, he “fully respects” the outcome of the police investigation and that he accepted “in all sincerity that people had the right to expect better” from him. Outlining the busy nature of the day the fine related to, he said he chaired eight meetings in No 10 followed by a four-hour round trip to a school in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.
He said: “There was a brief gathering in the Cabinet Room shortly after 2pm lasting for less than 10 minutes, during which people I work with kindly passed on their good wishes.
“And I have to say in all frankness at that time it did not occur to me that this might have been a breach of the rules.” He added: “I now humbly accept that I was.
“But I think the best thing I can do now is, having settled the fine, is focus on the job in hand. That’s what I’m going to do.”
Scotland Yard on Tuesday announced a further tranche of fixed-penalty notices (FPNs) in relation to Operation Hillman, which is probing possible Covid breaches in Downing Street and Whitehall, with more than 50 fines referred to the Acro Criminal Records Office since the inquiry started.
No 10 later confirmed that both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor were among those fined. It is understood Mr Sunak paid the fine but last night was yet to comment. A spokeswoman for Carrie Johnson, the Prime Minister’s wife, also said that she too had been fined in relation to the June 2020 birthday gathering at which, according to Northern Ireland minister Conor Burns, Mr Johnson was “ambushed with a cake”.
Reports suggested that up to 30 people attended the do and sung Happy Birthday in the Cabinet Room. A spokesperson for Mrs Johnson said she had paid the fine, understood to have been £50 if settled within 14 days.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the issuing of a partygate fine to Boris Johnson marked the “first time in the history of our country that a Prime Minister has been found to be in breach of the law”.
The former director of public prosecutions said: “The British public made the most unimaginable, heart-wrenching sacrifices, and many were overcome by guilt.
“Guilt at not seeing elderly relatives, not going to funerals or weddings, or even seeing the birth of their own children.
“But the guilty men are the Prime Minister and the Chancellor. They’ve dishonoured all of that sacrifice, they’ve dishonoured their office.
“This is the first time in the history of our country that a Prime Minister has been found to be in breach of the law, and then he lied repeatedly to the public about it. Britain deserves better, they have to go.”