Arthur Greene
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his wife Carrie Symonds and finance minister Rishi Sunak have all been fined by the Metropolitan Police for attending parties during lockdown.
The UK government is set to face serious questions over its leadership after Johnson and Sunak were found to have broken laws that their own party had set to stop the spread of the pandemic.
They are believed to be the first prime minister and chancellor to have broken the law whilst in office.
Johnson has faced calls to resign ever since it emerged in November 2021 that his government held up to 15 parties whilst the rest of the country was ordered not to mix with one another.
These calls intensified earlier this year when it emerged that Johnson had attended at least two of these parties himself, after misleading parliament by vowing that lockdown rules had been followed at all times.
Johnson and Symonds were pictured socialising with at least 17 other staff at a “wine and cheese” party on 15 May 2020 – the height of the first wave of the pandemic.
Just one month later, Symonds threw a birthday party for Johnson at their flat which was attended by at least 30 guests.
Other parties include a “boozy” leaving drinks held for an official the day before Prince Philip’s funeral on 17 April 2021. Lockdown rules meant that the Queen had to mourn the death of her husband alone at his funeral.
Leader of the opposition Keir Starmer has led rejuvenated calls for both Johnson and Sunak to resign.
“Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak have broken the law and repeatedly lied to the British public,” he said.
Johnson and Sunak’s fines are two of 50 set to be handed out by police to government staff, which Starmer has said is evidence of “widespread criminality” within government.
The news is the latest blow in what has been an awful week for Sunak. His budget announcement in March was widely criticised for raising taxes on working people whilst they were going through the UK’s worst cost of living crisis in decades.
Soon afterwards, it emerged that his wife, one the richest people in India, was not paying UK tax on income earned abroad as part of a scheme that is not illegal but is widely frowned upon.
