Prime Minister Boris Johnson has not been issued with a fine for Covid regulation breaches at this time, his spokesman told reporters, after police said they had recommended an initial 20 fines be issued over gatherings held in Downing Street.
Asked whether Johnson had received a fine, or been told he would be fined, the spokesman told reporters: “No. We’ve said we will update if that were to occur but our position has not changed.”
The Metropolitan Police said a batch of 20 fixed penalty notices had been sent to the Criminal Records Office so that it could forward them to the guilty offenders.
Senior officers also made clear that more fines could follow because there was still a “significant amount” of evidence to be analsyed about potential law breaking at the string of parties in No10 and other government venues.
Detectives refused to name any of those receiving fines, saying that the secrecy was in line with national policy protecting the identities of offenders given fixed penalty notices and similar penalties such as cautions or speeding fines.
Senior MPs insisted that he should not have to stand down if he is fined, pleading with backbenchers not to engage in a new Tory civil war over his future, arguing that there were bigger issues to deal with including the Ukraine conflict and the cost-of-living crisis.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith told Talk Radio: “All these things require big leadership and Boris Johnson has in these areas stepped up and we need to make sure that we don’t disappear into ourselves and start arguing about this.”
But Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said Mr Johnson should resign if he is fined.
“It is disgraceful that while the rest of the country followed their rules, Boris Johnson’s government acted like they didn’t apply to them,” she told Sky News.
“The buck stops with the Prime Minister, who spent months lying to the public, which is why he’s got to go.”
Mr Johnson previously told the Commons that “all guidance was followed” in No10 when asked about Covid rule breaking.
He has reportedly told Cabinet colleagues that he does not believe he personally broke the Covid laws.
The action follows police investigations into 12 parties, including up to six attended by Mr Johnson, held in Downing Street and Whitehall on dates including June 18 and 19, 2020, December 17 and 18, 2020 and April 16 last year when Covid regulations reportedly banning such gatherings were in place. They include a birthday party held for Mr Johnson and a bring-your-own-booze gathering in the garden of No10.
Police have said that more than 100 questionnaires have been sent to potential offenders asking to explain their movements on one or more of the dates being probed and last week announced that they had begun interviewing “key witnesses”.
In the statement, Scotland Yard declined to give further details but confirmed that the first 20 fines were being issued.
“We will today initially begin to refer 20 fixed penalty notices to be issued for breaches of Covid-19 regulations. The ACRO Criminal Records Office will then be responsible for issuing the FPNs to the individual following the referrals from the Met,” it said in a statement.
“We are making every effort to progress this investigation at speed and have completed a number of assessments. However, due to the significant amount of investigative material that remains to be assessed, further referrals may be made to ACRO if the evidential threshold is made.”
