Boris Johnson risks being slapped with £10,000 in fines over Downing Street parties, a leading expert warned today.
The Prime Minister paid just £50 of a fixed penalty notice yesterday that was issued for a June 2020 birthday bash in his honour.
But he admitted more fines could be coming down the track - telling journalists: “If they are I'm sure that you will be the first to know.”
Human rights barrister Adam Wagner, who has analysed Covid laws, has warned that could spell big financial trouble for the PM.
That is because each time a person is fined, they receive double the penalty up to a cap of £6,400.
England’s lockdown fines were £100 between May 2020 and September 2020, after which they doubled to £200. Each is halved if paid within 14 days.
Boris Johnson attended two events before September 2020 that police are investigating, and is thought to have been at four after that date.
He also attended a seventh in December 2020 - a Christmas virtual quiz - that police said they might probe but never confirmed.
In theory it appears he could be fined £200 for a second offence in summer 2020, £800 for a third offence after that, then £1,600, £3,200 and £6,400.
That is because second offences pre-September 2020 incurred a fine of £200, third offences £400, and so on.
After September 2020, second offences were worth £400, third offences £800, and so on.
Speaking on Sky News, Mr Wagner said: "Each one doubles, so if the Prime Minister attended six gatherings and five of which he's at risk of getting a fixed penalty notice for - if he get's a fixed penalty notice in order for each one then he could end up paying over £10,000."
When asked whether he thinks there are further fines in the pipeline for Mr Johnson, the lawyer said: "I would be surprised if there aren't.
"I always thought the birthday party was very straight forward, but there are other gatherings which are even more straight forward - the December 18 and the Christmas party and various leaving dos.
"I think there has already been fixed penalty notices given out for one of the leaving dos.
"If all of them were quite similar it seems to me there's going to be a number of fixed penalty notices, probably for the Prime Minister as well."
Writing in the Mirror today, Mr Wagner said police must have “reasonably believed” Mr Johnson committed a criminal offence to issue a fine.
He added: “You will no doubt hear politicians say this is “just a fine”, or like a speeding offence. I’m afraid to say that is nonsense.
“There is a world of difference between a person getting a speeding fine and multiple lockdown breaching parties being held behind the walls of Downing Street whilst the rest of the public were prohibited from seeing loved ones, holding weddings and even attending funerals.
“It is possible to argue over whether the police believing at least 50 crimes happened at the heart of government is “as bad” as officials and the Prime Minister being convicted of crimes.”
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak do not seem to understand how "deeply offensive" their lockdown breaches are.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Ms Reeves said: "Fresh leadership would mean that we will have a government that could concentrate on the issues that we need to focus on as a country."
Asked if Mr Johnson's claim that he unknowingly broke the rules was a sufficient explanation, Ms Reeves said: "No, it would not do because the Prime Minister still at this stage, even after receiving this fixed penalty notice from the Metropolitan Police, is still unable to say what people, especially those who have made huge sacrifices in the pandemic, want him to say - is that he was wrong, he did something that was wrong, he understands that, he understood that he has lied to Parliament and lied to the country.
"But he is still obfuscating and saying, oh he still didn't really realise he was breaking the rules and he just happened to be in this room at the time... It's just not good enough.
"People have never made, collectively or personally, the sacrifices that were made during the pandemic outside of wartime and the Prime Minister and the Chancellor still don't seem to understand how deeply offensive it is, especially to those who lost loved ones, or who were not there for the birth of their child, or for the death of a loved one."
