Officials being fined for lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street is “not the most important issue in the world” given atrocities in Ukraine, Jacob Rees-Mogg has said, while also arguing that Boris Johnson did not mislead people over the events.
Defending earlier comments that described revelations about the parties as “fluff”, the Brexit opportunities minister said a more fundamental issue to be discussed was whether the Covid rules in place at the time were too rigid.
Taking part in a phone-in show on LBC radio, Rees-Mogg declined a caller’s request to apologise for calling the party claims “fluff” now that the Metropolitan police had issued fines to some people who attended the lockdown gatherings.
“We have a war going on in Ukraine, we have atrocities being carried out, we have pictures coming through that show the enormous brutality of Putin’s army,” Rees-Mogg said. “And what I was saying was, in the context of what is going on, not just with Ukraine but with the cost of living crisis, this is not the most important issue in the world. Having said that, people should obviously obey the law.”
Those fined reportedly include the government’s former ethics chief Helen MacNamara. According to the Telegraph, she was fined £50 for attending a leaving event in the Cabinet Office in June 2020.
Separately, sources told the Guardian that Downing Street staff have been issued with fines by over a party that took place the night before Prince Philip’s funeral in April 2021.
Even though fines had been issued, Johnson had not misled parliament when he said no rules were broken, as he was simply passing on information he had been given, Rees-Mogg said.
“The fact that the prime minister was given wrong information doesn’t mean he misled people. The prime minister said that he was told that the rules were followed, but that turns out not to be correct. We know that fines have now been issued. But the prime minister can only work on the information he’s given.
“If the prime minister is told information that is incorrect, and passes that information on, he has made no deliberate effort to mislead anybody.”
Calling his earlier comments “completely reasonable”, Rees-Mogg appeared to suggest a more important issue would be for a future Covid inquiry to look into whether the rules imposed on people’s lives were overly tough.
“I don’t think the issue of what may or may not have happened in Downing Street, and what we are finding out, is fundamental,” he said. “What I think is fundamental is that we look in the inquiry at how the rules were devised, and the effect that they had.”
Asked about the fines on Sky News, the Wales secretary, Simon Hart, dismissed calls for Boris Johnson to resign, saying “the world has moved on a considerable distance”.
Citing the views of his constituents, Hart said: “Throughout all of this saga of the Downing Street parties they have said one thing very clearly, and in a vast majority: they want contrition, they want an apology, but they don’t want a resignation.”
