An NHS worker who was hit with a £200 fine for attending a vigil for Sarah Everard has said Boris Johnson should be fined £10,000 and should resign for breaching his own lockdown rules.
Catherine Bolton attended the memorial to Sarah Everard in Liverpool last March with her son, Vidal, a decision for which she was ordered to pay the three-figure sum for breaching the PM's lockdown rules. She says she went to the vigil with her son and another single mum, who was in her bubble, and was stopped by a police officer once the event had concluded.
Yet, she refused to pay the fine and, after the Partygate scandal, she decided to use it as a defence. However, the case was dropped dramatically weeks before she was due in court next month.
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The 44-year-old told the Mirror she was left gobsmacked after it was revealed on Monday that Boris Johnson, his wife Carrie and scandal-hit Chancellor Rishi Sunak had all been fined just £50 for attending the Prime Minister's birthday bash on June 19 last year. She said: "How were they fined just £50 when I was fined £200. It was the first time I had ever been given a Covid fine yet it was a hefty one.
"They should have been fined £10,000 because they not only broke the rules but they broke the rules that they drew up - it makes no sense and shows how unfair the system is and how disproportionate their fines are compared to others."
Mr Johnson apologised on Monday evening but has refused to resign despite being the UK's first ever Prime Minister to break the law while in office.
Catherine said: "Other leaders have resigned for less but the fact he won't go shows how pompous and self-entitled he is. He thinks he can can do anything he wants and when he is caught out an apology is enough, but it's not because he has told lie after lie after lie and nothing is being done about it.
"People were unable to see their dying loved one because they stuck to the rules but yet Boris and his chums didn't. What Boris is showing us all is that he is untouchable but no one should be untouchable and something has to give. He needs to go.
"He stood there day after day telling us to stay at home and that we couldn't see our loved ones, but in reality he was doing what he wanted to do because it suited him. I fought long and hard to have my fine overturned as I knew I had done nothing wrong, but many people just paid up because they were scared of what would happened if they didn't.
"These are everyday people who are struggling to pay their bills yet some were given fines as much as £10,000 so how can Boris and his chums be fined just £50. How is that fair? People need to demand their money back."
The Met Police initially refused to investigate claims of lockdown parties at Downing Street, saying they do not retrospectively probe Covid breaches. However, they eventually did a U-turn after top civil servant Sue Gray conducted her own investigation into the parties - which are believed to be as many as 16 in total.
While Mr Johnson is refusing to resign, he is accused of misleading MPs about the parties - a clear breach of the ministerial code - when he told the Commons he had been “repeatedly assured” there were no parties and no covid rules were broken. Catherine said: "It didn't surprise me when we heard about the parties as the Tories do what they want to do.
"I was also threatened by social services for bringing my son to a vigil because that's the way they treat working class people like me, but Boris has been allowed to pay a paltry £50 fine and get on with things. It's clearly one rule for them and another rule for us.
"They are behaving above the law. You just can't make it up and Boris needs to go."
