Rishi fined £100 for not wearing seatbelt
He was caught on Instagram video
RISHI Sunak was last night fined £100 for not wearing a seatbelt.
The Prime Minister was hit with the fixed penalty notice by Lancashire Constabulary after the safety lapse was exposed by a promotional clip filmed in the back of a moving car.
‘Following the circulation of a video on social media showing an individual failing to wear a seatbelt... we have today issued a 42-year- old man from London with a conditional offer of fixed penalty,’ the force said.
The offence carries an on-the-spot fine of £100, which can rise to £500 if it goes to court. A No 10 spokesman said: ‘The Prime Minister fully accepts this was a mistake and has apologised. He will of course comply with the fixed penalty.’
Mr Sunak’s error was immediately seized upon by his political opponents and comes just nine months after he was fined £50 for breaking lockdown laws in Downing Street.
However, others suggested that police shouldn’t have wasted their time investigating the error.
Former chief crown prosecutor Nazir Afzal said: ‘We’re making a mountain out of a molehill. There are far more important things to deal with.’
Blackpool South Conservative MP Scott Benton said: ‘Lancashire Police do an amazing job, but I’m sure their time is better spent investigating serious crime which impacts on my constituents.
‘The vast majority of people would think that politically motivated complaints about a seatbelt are not a good use of frontline resources.’
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: ‘Rishi Sunak has shown the same disregard for the rules as Boris Johnson, and now becomes the
‘Mountain out of a molehill’
second-ever Prime Minister to be fined by the police.’
Christian Wakeford, who defected from the Conservatives to Labour last year, said: ‘Surely the first person to break the law as Chancellor and Prime Minister?’
Mr Sunak’s blunder came on Thursday during a trip to promote levelling-up spending.
The video posted on his Instagram account and later taken down, showed the PM addressing the camera in the back seat of a car. He is clearly not wearing a seatbelt as the car is driven through a residential area.