Police probe Sunak after he admits leaving his seatbelt off
RISHI Sunak could be fined after being filmed in a moving vehicle without a seatbelt.
The Prime Minister committed the error in an Instagram video to promote a tour around northern England to announce £2billion of funding for regeneration projects.
Lancashire Police confirmed last night it was looking into his failure to wear a belt. In a statement to the Mail, the force said: ‘We are aware of the matter and we will be looking into it.’
Usually drivers who do not wear a seatbelt are handed an on-thespot fine of £100, but this can rise to a maximum of £500 if the case reaches court.
Karl Turner, Labour MP for East Hull, told Mr Sunak to ‘belt up’ and accused him of giving his constituency ‘nowt’ in funding.
Mr Sunak’s spokesman said: ‘That was a brief error of judgment. The Prime Minister removed the seatbelt to film a short clip, which you’ve seen, but he fully accepts this was a mistake and apologises.’
It was one of two controversies over the Prime Minister’s travel arrangements yesterday. He used a private plane to fly from RAF Northolt in north-west London to Blackpool, avoiding the stricken Avanti West Coast mainline. He then flew on to Hartlepool.
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said taking private jets instead of trains made a mockery of the PM’s environmental strategy. But Mr Sunak told an event in Morecambe that travelling by plane allowed him to ‘ do lots of things in one day’.
He added: ‘I can talk to people in Accrington this morning, then I’ve talked to you, then I’m going to get over to Hartlepool because I’m working on all of your behalves.’
His spokesman said air travel let him fit in other business such as calls to world leaders.
A Labour Party spokesman said: ‘Rishi Sunak doesn’t know how to manage a seatbelt, his debit card, a train service, the economy, this country. This list is growing every day, and it’s making for endless painful viewing.’
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: ‘It seems like the PM is getting too used to flying around in private jets that he’s forgotten to wear a seatbelt in a car.
‘The fact he’s breaking a basic law is just embarrassing.’
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, which campaigned for mandatory seatbelts before their introduction in 1981, said: ‘Seatbelt legislation immediately reduced passenger and driver deaths by 29 per cent.
‘ Forty years on, RoSPA estimates that seatbelts save the lives of around 7,000 of people per year across Europe.
‘Government statistics show that around a quarter of car occupant fatalities in 2020 weren’t wearing a seatbelt at the time of collision, highlighting that everyone should take seat belt laws seriously – whoever and wherever they are.’