Prime minister Boris Johnson and chancellor Rishi Sunak have been issued with fixed penalty notice fines by police investigating breaches of Covid law.
There were immediate calls for both men to resign from Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who said they were “unfit to govern”.
Mr Johnson’s wife Carrie has also been told she will receive an FPN, a spokesperson confirmed.
The fines are among at least 30 imposed over the past fortnight and announced today by the Metropolitan Police, bringing the total number of penalties in relation to lockdown-breaching parties in Downing Street and Whitehall to more than 50.
And police said they were continuing to assess “significant amounts of investigative material” which could lead to further fines.
Mr Johnson is the first UK prime minister to be penalised for breaking the law while serving at 10 Downing Street. News of his fine threatens to undermine the Conservative campaign for local elections across the country on 5 May.
There was a notable absence of Tory MPs coming forward to defend the PM in the wake of his fine.
Loyalist MP Michael Fabricant said that “when the prime minister told the House he didn’t think he was breaking any law, I don’t think he did think he was breaking any law”, and a number of Mr Johnson’s Tory critics said that it would not be right to remove the PM during the Ukraine crisis. But in the hours after the news broke there were no public statements of support from members of Mr Johnson’s cabinet.
Representatives for families who lost loved ones in the Covid pandemic said that there was “no way” that either the PM or Mr Sunak could continue in office.
Lobby Akinnola, spokesman for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, said it was “unbelievably painful” to think of the PM breaking his own lockdown rules to party at a time when loved ones were dying and relatives were attending funerals limited to a handful of attendees.
“The fact that Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak then lied about it, and would have continued to do so if the police hadn’t intervened, is truly shameless,” he said. “They broke the law. But even worse, they took us all for mugs.
“When we met the PM in the Downing Street garden – the same one where they had these parties – he looked us in the eyes and said he had done everything he could to save our loved ones. We now know that that was a lie.
“There is simply no way either the prime minister or chancellor can continue. Their dishonesty has caused untold hurt to the bereaved.”
Confirming the fines, a No 10 spokesperson said: “The prime minister and the chancellor of the Exchequer have today received notification that the Metropolitan Police intend to issue them with fixed penalty notices. We have no further details, but we will update you again when we do.”
Sir Keir said: “Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak have broken the law and repeatedly lied to the British public. They must both resign.
“The Conservatives are totally unfit to govern. Britain deserves better.”
No details were released by either the Metropolitan Police or Downing Street over the size of the fines or the events to which they relate.
It is believed that Mr Sunak is being punished for his presence at a surprise birthday party for the prime minister on 19 June 2020, which is thought to be the only event which he attended out of the 12 under investigation by the Met’s Operation Hillman.
A Treasury source previously said that the chancellor attended the event by accident, having gone to the Cabinet Room in No 10 expecting a Covid strategy meeting.
As well as the birthday party, Mr Johnson was present at a “bring your own booze” gathering in the garden of No 10 on 20 May 2020 and took part in a Christmas Zoom quiz on 15 December 2020, when he was photographed flanked by two staff members.
It is also thought he may have been present at an “Abba party” held by wife Carrie in their flat above 11 Downing Street to celebrate the departure of former aide Dominic Cummings on 13 November 2020.
It is not yet known whether Mr Johnson has been issued with notices relating to multiple events, which could considerably increase the size of the fine. Penalties for Covid breaches were set at £100 at the highpoint of the pandemic, but could be doubled with subsequent offences up to a maximum of £6,400. Attendance at a large gathering could attract a fine of £400 on a first offence and organisers of a large event faced maximum penalties of £10,000.
News of Mr Johnson’s fine will reignite demands for him to admit having misled the House of Commons about parties in No 10, which doubles as his workplace and his home.
The prime minister told the Commons in December that he had been “repeatedly assured there was no party and that no Covid rules were broken”.
And Mr Sunak assured MPs on 21 November 2021: “No, I did not attend any parties.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey called for parliament to be recalled from its Easter break for a vote of no confidence in the prime minister.
“This is a government in crisis neglecting a country in crisis,” said Sir Ed.
But the prospects of an imminent revolt by Tory MPs to oust the PM seemed slight, with arch-critic Sir Roger Gale, who previously submitted a letter of no confidence in Johnson, saying that it would not be right to change leader while war is raging in Ukraine.
“I don’t think the PM will lead us into the next election,” said the veteran Conservative MP. “There will come a time the PM will have to face this, but that time is not now.
“We are in the middle of an international crisis and I am not prepared to give Vladimir Putin the comfort of thinking that we are about to unseat the prime minister of the United Kingdom and destabilise the coalition against Putin.
“This is going to have to wait until we hav dealt with the main crisis which is Ukraine and the Donbas.”
Sir Roger was among around a dozen Tory MPs to declare publicly that they had submitted confidence letters at the height of the Partygate scandal in February. Others are believed to have done so privately, but the total never reached the threshold of 54 needed to trigger a vote on Mr Johnson’s leadership, and some letters have been withdrawn following the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, who withdrew his call for the PM to go in the wake of the Russian invasion, said: “In the middle of war in Europe, when Vladimir Putin is committing war crimes and the UK is Ukraine’s biggest ally, as President (Volodymyr) Zelensky said at the weekend, it wouldn’t be right to remove the prime minister at this time.”
However, demands for Mr Johnson’s head are likely to be revived when the full report by Whitehall mandarin Sue Gray into the Partygate scandal is published following the completion of the Met inquiry.
Tory MP for Broxtowe Darren Henry called for a public apology from Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak, but said he would not make any further statement until after the Gray report.
