Boris Johnson, chancellor and first lady among those fined for Downing Street lockdown parties
Carrie Johnson, the prime minister’s wife, said through her spokesperson that she is also being fined. She has been tied to a birthday singalong she organized and seen in a photograph of a garden party with wine and cheese.
The announcements on Tuesday came as the police said they had issued another 30 criminal fines to attendees of the gatherings, bringing the running tally to at least 50.
For the Johnsons and Sunak, the fines may only be a couple hundred pounds each, and there’s still an opportunity to contest the penalties. But even still, they come with a huge political cost for Johnson’s government.
The prime minister had sought to downplay the gatherings as “work events,” saying repeatedly that, as far as he knew, he and his staff broke no rules.
Upon announcement that 50 fines have now been issued, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, Keir Starmer, told Sky News that “now it’s obvious there was widespread criminality” at 10 Downing Street, where Johnson lives and works.
Johnson is now associated with criminal behavior, and his critics will hammer away that the prime minister, charging he cannot be trusted.
When news of the parties broke last year, the fetes prompted anger from the British public, alongside the tearful resignations of Johnson’s top aides and forecasts of the prime minister’s political demise. The House of Commons rang out with calls from the opposition — and a few from his fellow Conservative Party members — for Johnson to resign.
The prime minister initially claimed that “all guidance was followed completely in No 10” and “no covid rules were broken.” His critics say his answers misled members of parliament.
The prime minister later apologized for some of the gatherings, calling them wrong, and vowing to clean up the behavior at Downing Street.
His supporters have been saying it is time to move on, so Johnson and his government can devote their full attention to the war in Ukraine, skyrocketing energy prices and post-Brexit trade deals.
But Tuesday’s news promises that the scandal will only grow.
The Metropolitan Police have not named who else has been fined, what parties they attended, or even if the 50 fines have gone to 50 different people.
Police are looking into 12 gatherings that took place at the prime minister’s office and residence and the nearby Cabinet Office. The fetes involved quiz games, “BYOB” invitations — and alcohol that was brought in via wheeled luggage.
These took place during government-ordered lockdowns, when families were denied visits to loved ones in hospitals and the number of attendees at funerals was limited.
One party was on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral, a somber goodbye at Windsor Castle, best remembered for the image of Queen Elizabeth II sitting alone and masked in St. George’s Chapel, where attendance was capped at 30 guests.
In addition to Johnson and Sunak, the attendees are believed to be mostly government staffers. Those set to be fined are first sent a “fixed penalty notices.” They then have 28 days to contest the charge, or they can simply pay the amount, likely to be 200 pounds ($263) — half if paid promptly.
An earlier internal investigation of the gatherings found that some showed “a serious failure” to observe the standards expected of government officials, a failure in leadership, excessive alcohol consumption.
Sunak serves as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in charge of the nation’s finances and budgets. It is one of the “Great Offices of State,” and when calls first went out for Johnson to resign over the parties, many Conservative Party members speculated that Sunak might make a good replacement.
But no more. Sunak has been under intense scrutiny since last week, when the British press revealed that his wife, Akshata Murty, had not been paying British taxes on her overseas earnings.
Murty is a billionaire who owns millions in shares of Indian technology giant Infosys, which was founded by her father. Murty claimed “non-domicile” status in British tax filings, even though she lives with her husband in Britain. Her tax position is one many dual nationals deploy. It is legal, but the optics are terrible.
Until last week when the moving vans arrived, Sunak and Murty lived in the chancellor’s residence at 11 Downing St.