The Met police of Britain has confirmed Mr Johnson was fined for his participation in a gathering in the Cabinet Room on his birthday on June 19 2020. The UK prime minister confirmed he had paid the fine. And the Chancellor Rishi Sunak has also been fined, while the PM’s wife, Carrie Johnson, confirmed she had paid a fine relating to the same event.
Mr Johnson apologised but said he would not resign over the incident.
“I accept in all sincerity that people had the right to expect better,” he said in an interview, at his Chequers country retreat.
“[But] now I feel an even greater sense of obligation to deliver on the priorities of the British people.”
The fines come as part of a Metropolitan Police investigation into illegal parties that broke Covid rules in Downing Street.
Mr Johnson’s fine makes him the UK’s first serving prime minister to be sanctioned for breaking the law.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, Scotland’s First Minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, and Wales’ Labour First Minister Mark Drakeford are among those calling for both the PM and the chancellor to resign.
And all the main opposition parties in Westminster have demanded Parliament be recalled from its Easter break so MPs can discuss the matter.
