Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak flouted the laws they made. It is up to Conservative MPs to show that there is a price beyond the police fine
The prime minister and the chancellor broke the law. That is the finding of the Metropolitan police investigation, which will result in fixed-penalty notices for the two men. To be more precise: Boris Johnson broke the life-saving rules that he set, and which others made immeasurable sacrifices to follow, in the very place where they were formulated – then denied having done so. Through his actions and his subsequent remarks, he has treated the public with contempt.
While parties took place in Whitehall, hundreds of parents, spouses, siblings and friends were dying each day. Families were unable to see vulnerable relatives in care homes. Doctors and nurses on the frontline could not gather to comfort each other after gruelling shifts. The Met is investigating no fewer than 12 gatherings, and has handed out 50 fixed-penalty notices; with the prime minister alleged to have attended as many as six events, he could yet face more fines. The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group observed: “It is still unbelievably painful that Boris Johnson was partying and breaking his own lockdown rules, while we were unable to be at our loved ones’ sides in their dying moments, or in miserable funerals with only a handful of people.”
