A County Durham mum has called on Boris Johnson to pay back everyone who coughed up for a Covid fine as she says the Sue Gray report's revelations of late-night booze-fuelled bashes at Downing Street 'make a mockery' of lockdown rules.
Speaking after the publication of the long-awaited report, Amanda Martindale, from Stanley, branded the Prime Minister "absolutely disgraceful".
Her son Alex was handed a £1,100 fine for attending a seven-person gathering at a house in Prudhoe, Northumberland on March 20, 2021, during the third national lockdown amid Tier 4 restrictions. The penalty rose to £1,600 after Alex failed to pay.
The 23-year-old was eventually able to handover the cash thanks to a family loan - but after finding out the Prime Minister paid just £50 for his lockdown breach, Amanda believes it's "one rule for them and another for everyone else". The Met Police has previously revealed that a total of 126 fixed penalty notices were handed out to 83 individuals relating to events in and around Number 10.
Among these were a fine each for Boris Johnson, his wife Carrie and chancellor Rishi Sunak. These £100 penalties were slashed to £50 because they were paid off within 14 days.
Amanda said: "It's absolutely disgraceful. £50 to them is nothing - £1,100 to a 23-year-old is an awful lot of money. To them it's just spare change in their pockets - Rishi Sunak is a millionaire and he's got a £50 fine, it's a joke.
"It just makes a mockery of everything they said, and I can't believe he was such a liar, saying all the rules were followed.
"It's absolutely disgraceful and I think [the Prime Minister] should reimburse all the people who've paid their fines - he can afford it.
"They just seem to sweep it under the carpet and I think with this government they use something else, like the war in Ukraine, which I know is very serious, to try and make us forget about the parties."
The County Durham mum said the leader of the country was treated more leniently than her son, questioning why the Prime Minister had only been handed one fine, when others at events the Sue Gray report said he was at were fined.
According to Ms Gray, the Prime Minister was present at a total of eight of the listed events - whilst she noted that, given that some events were only raised to her as a result of media coverage 'it is possible that events took place which were not the subject of investigation'.
After September 2020, laws were changed to mean the penalty for breaking lockdown increased with the number of offences - for example, the fine for a sixth lockdown breaking event was £6,400, compare to £100 for a first offence.
Amanda said: "At the end of the day, my son was 23 - he shouldn't have done it, but the Prime Minister should know better than him. It's just one rule for them and another rule for everyone else."
Boris Johnson told MPs on Wednesday that his attendances at the events other than the June 19 party for which he was fined had 'not been found to be outside the rules'. He said he took "full responsibility and told the house 'I am humbled and I have learned a lesson".
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