Latest updates: Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, says PM’s fine for breaking lockdown rules is akin to parking ticket
Good morning. It used to be said that Boris Johnson was a politician who always refused to apologise for anything. While in some respects true (although most politicians are loath to issue an apology), it is no longer a useful observation to make about Johnson because he has now established quite a substantial back catalogue of Partygate apologies. We will get another addition to the collection today.
Today’s is likely to be modelled on the statement he made on camera at Chequers a week ago today which started:
Today I have received a fixed penalty notice from the Metropolitan police relating to an event in Downing Street on 19thJune 2020, and let me say immediately that I have paid the fine and I once again offer a full apology.
And in a spirit of openness and humility, I want to be completely clear about what happened on that date.
I think we do see consistently, whether it is through parking fines or speeding fines, ministers of both parties over the years have been in that position. We’ve had prime ministers in the past who have received penalty notices, from what I can see, and also front bench ministers.
I saw there was a parking notice that Tony Blair had once. We’ve seen front bench Labour ministers and, let’s be frank, government ministers as well.
As I say, if somebody gets a speeding ticket – and I’m not in any way trying to equate a speeding ticket that somebody has had with the situation of the sacrifices people made through Covid, I’ll be really clear about that …
These were rules that we were told we couldn’t even flex because lives are at stake. This was a moment of national crisis in which all our lives changed. And you are essentially downplaying that by bringing in some spurious reports that you’ve heard without even backing.
