Breaking Covid rules was ‘wrong’ says Bucks MP after PM receives fine

MP for Buckingham, Greg Smith, has said there has been “no special treatment” for the Prime Minister and the Chancellor following news they have been fined by police for breaking Covid-19 regulations.

On Tuesday, Boris Johnson became the first sitting Prime Minister in UK history to be sanctioned by the police for breaking the law after receiving a fixed penalty notice (FPN) for attending a birthday party thrown for him in No 10 Downing Street.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Mr Johnson’s wife also received fines for attending the same event.

At the time of the party on 19^th June 2020, gatherings of more than two people indoors from separate households were illegal. Around 30 people are thought to have attended the PM’s birthday party.

Mr Smith said that while the PM may have broken the rules “unknowingly”, it “was wrong”, adding he was “pleased both the Prime Minister and Chancellor were quick to apologise and confirm payment of their fines.”

When it was first reported that senior members of the Government may have broken Covid-19 lockdown laws, Buckingham Town Councillor Jon Harvey wrote to Greg Smith, seeking assurances that the PM had not done so.

Responding to the news of Mr Johnson’s FPN yesterday, Councillor Harvey told us: “My MP Greg Smith wrote to me in December 2021 saying that he had "the Prime Minister’s assurances that no rules were broken" and that he took 'the Prime Minister at his word'.

“Evidently, rules were broken.

“I would expect my MP now to be calling for Mr Johnson to resign, being the first PM in the history of the UK to have broken the law while in office.

“If Mr Smith says nothing, or worse seeks to defend and/or excuse the PM, he is putting party before the country, and scorning the thousands of people who did follow the rules and avoided seeing loved ones, even those dying or attending funerals during the lockdowns".

MP for Chesham and Amersham, Sarah Green, expressed similar sentiments, saying: “People across our country made devastating sacrifices to follow the laws set by Downing St. Meanwhile, those who set them, broke them.

“If the Prime Minister has any respect for his office or for the British public, he will go and go now.”

By contrast, the MP for Beaconsfield, Joy Morrissey, tweeted her support of the Prime Minister, writing: “The PM has taken full responsibility and apologised for what happened in No 10, as colleagues took 9 minutes out of a busy day to wish him a happy birthday. I am looking forward to helping @BorisJohnson deliver on the priorities of the British people.”

[PICTURE: Joy Morrissey tweets her support for the Prime Minister]

Around 50 fines have so far been issued by the Metropolitan Police as part of their investigation into illegal parties thrown in Downing Street and Whitehall during Covid lockdowns. More are expected to follow.

Lawyer and prominent political commentator from Buckingham, Peter Stefanovic, told Bucks Radio: “The mind-boggling level of criminality overseen by the Prime Minister is simply breathtaking. Downing Street must now have one of the highest crime rates in the country and he’s lied about it repeatedly, both in Parliament and in public.

“Let’s also not forget that the police have applied a very high threshold. So, the Prime Minister - now saying he didn’t realise he was breaking the very rules he wrote and imposed on the rest of us - is either lying or so dim-witted he shouldn’t have been promoted to that office in the first place.

“The Ministerial code is clear. He must resign or be sacked. Any MP who advocates keeping this lying criminal with no respect for the truth in office should be thrown out with him.”

Greg Smith has previously said to Bucks Radio in an interview that if there was “absolute clarity” that the Prime Minister had lied to Parliament then he would call for his resignation, but added that the process was “deeply confidential.”

MP for Aylesbury, Rob Butler, has been contacted by Bucks Radio but no statement had been received at the time of publication.

MP Greg Smith’s full statement reads: “The issuing of Fixed Penalty Notices to the Prime Minister, Chancellor and others in Downing Street does mean those who made the rules, broke the rules.  Perhaps, as the Prime Ministers' statement indicated, unknowingly. But they were broken. That was wrong. And I will not seek to defend it. 

“In a rules-based society, it is right that those who made the rules and then didn't always obey them have been subject to the very same penalties they also devised.

“There has been no 'special' treatment, but the same penalties anyone else who broke the rules would have faced.  I am pleased both the Prime Minister and Chancellor were quick to apologise and confirm payment of their fines.”