The Partygate fiasco escalated on Thursday after a second Cabinet minister appeared to be at odds with Boris Johnson over whether 20 fines issued by the Police represented a breach of the law.
International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan told Sky News the Metropolitan Police’s move to ask the Criminal Record Office to issue fixed penalty notices on Tuesday meant those people receiving them had “broken the regulations that were set in the Covid act”. She added: “The Police deem that was what they did and therefore they have been fined accordingly”.