A former Supreme Court Judge has hit out at Prime Minister Boris Johnson after it was announced he would be fined over the Partygate scandal.
Speaking after the news broke of Mr Johnson’s fine, Lord Sumption told GB News that the PM had “chose to deny that humanity to everyone else.”
He said: “For Boris Johnson to seek convivial company in his spare moments was only human.
“The problem is that he chose to deny that humanity to everyone else.
His comments come just hours after a statement from No.10 confirmed that both Mr Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak would be handed fixed penalty notices over breaches of Covid-19 rules during lockdown parties.
Lord Sumption has slammed Boris Johnson
WikiCommons
The statement read: “The Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer have today received notification that the Metropolitan police intend to issue them with fixed penalty notices.”
A further statement revealed that the fines were in relation to a gathering of two or more people indoors between 2pm and 3pm in the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street on June 19, 2020.
Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon are among those who have called for Mr Johnson to resign from his post.
But the feeling among many Tory MPs is that he should not step down amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Tory MP Sir Roger Gale said: “It’s serious of course. My position remains that the fact that the Prime Minister has effectively misled the House of Commons is a very serious issue indeed, but we are in the middle of an international crisis and I am not prepared to give Vladimir Putin the comfort of thinking that we are about to unseat the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and destabilise the coalition against Putin.
“So any reaction to this is going to have to wait until we have dealt with the main crisis which is Ukraine and the Donbas.”
Boris Johnson is to be fined over breaches of Covid-19 rules
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He continued: “The Prime Minister has said categorically no rules were broken and nothing untoward took place. That is patently wrong and he now has to acknowledge that it’s wrong. And he will have to decide I think where that leaves him in his relationship with Parliament.
“My main concern is that we don’t rock the boat and give Putin the comfort of thinking that the alliance, the NATO alliance particularly, but the coalition that’s been put together to sanction Putin and all his works, is unstable. That’s absolutely of paramount importance.”
Scottish Conservative Leader Douglas Ross added: "The public are rightly furious at what happened in Downing Street during the pandemic. I understand why they are angry and share their fury. The behaviour was unacceptable. The Prime Minister now needs to respond to these fines being issued.
"However, as I've made very clear, in the middle of war in Europe, when Vladimir Putin is committing war crimes and the UK is Ukraine's biggest ally, as President Zelenskyy said at the weekend, it wouldn't be right to remove the Prime Minister at this time.
“It would destabilise the UK Government when we need to be united in the face of Russian aggression and the murdering of innocent Ukrainians."
