Boris Johnson is to face a grilling from MPs when he appears in the House of Commons on Tuesday.
The Prime Minister is expected to give a statement as he appears in Parliament for the first time since he was given a £50 fixed penalty notice for breaking lockdown rules. Mr Johnson will face pressure to address criticisms that he misled Parliament – an offence traditionally seen as a resigning matter for ministers – in previous statements about rule-breaking in No 10, during which he argued Covid guidance had been followed at all times.
And while the under-fire PM is expected to make a full apology, it is understood he will not address allegations he instigated a separate lockdown leaving do that sparked fresh controversy over the weekend. Instead, he is likely to focus on the crisis in Ukraine, along with the Government’s controversial new policy on sending “illegal” migrants to Rwanda.
Read More: Boris Johnson expected to give 'full-throated apology' to MPs
Last week the PM was fined by the Metropolitan Police for attending a birthday bash thrown in his honour in the Cabinet room in June 2020, while coronavirus restrictions were in place. He was then accused over the weekend of not only attending a leaving party for his former communications chief Lee Cain on November 13 2020, but instigating the do.
Downing Street declined to comment on the claims. Mr Johnson is expected to make a statement in the Commons today at 3.30pm or later, as MPs return to Westminster following the Easter recess.
This morning, there have been attempts to shore up Mr Johnson's position by his political allies. A Cabinet minister appeared to suggest Mr Johnson being fined for breaking the coronavirus rules he set is similar to former ministers receiving speeding fines.
Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said other ministers, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair, had received fixed penalty notices (FPN) and remained in office.
Mr Lewis told Sky News the Prime Minister was not the first No 10 incumbent to receive a penalty for a legal infringement. “I think we do see consistently, whether it is through parking fines or speeding fines, ministers of both parties over the years have been in that position,” said the former Conservative Party chairman.
“We’ve had Prime Ministers in the past who have received penalty notices, from what I can see, and also front bench ministers. I saw there was a parking notice that Tony Blair had once. We’ve seen front bench Labour ministers and, let’s be frank, Government ministers as well.”
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He added: “You’ve asked me, can someone who sets the laws and the rules, can they also be someone who breaks the rules? That clearly has happened with a number of ministers over the years.”
Questioned about his choice of response on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Lewis replied: “I’m not in any way trying to equate a speeding ticket with the sacrifices people have made through Covid.” Senior opposition MPs said there was a “massive difference” between a Covid FPN and a speeding ticket.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions, told ITV’s Lorraine programme: “I have never had anybody break down in front of me because they couldn’t drive at 35mph in a 30mph zone; I have had no end of people in tears – in real bits – about complying with rules that really, really hurt them.”
Shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry has appealed to Conservatives to rise above party politics if opposition parties secure a vote on the future of Prime Minister Boris Johnson after he was fined by police for attending a birthday bash in breach of Covid rules. The Labour MP told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme “there are ongoing discussions between the opposition parties and with the Speaker” about how to try to deal with the situation, and said “it would be wrong for me to cut across those”.
She added: “Whatever means we take, the difficulty we will always have is that, since the 2019 election, the Conservatives have an 80-seat majority when there is a vote. Unless Conservative MPs can look at their consciences and vote the right way, we are not going to get the sort of result that we should get.
“Unless the Prime Minister looks to his own conscience and decides that he should do the right thing, we are not going to get the results that we should get and, frankly, the result that the public want us to get, which is that this Prime Minister should go.”
But now is not the time for Boris Johnson to step down over “partygate” and “it is certainly not in the country’s interests to think about replacing the Prime Minister”, the treasurer of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbench MPs has said.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “At a time when thousands of our constituents are facing the biggest squeeze in their cost of living for a generation, when we are facing a bloody war in Europe the like of which we haven’t seen since the Second World War, when we are seeing a slowdown of the world economy because of all of that – to force the Prime Minister out and have instability at the top of Government for at least two months, as I know as treasurer of the 1922 when we re-selected a successor to Theresa May, I think would be not in the country’s interests.”
Sir Geoffrey said he wants to see “all the evidence” which would include whether more fines are issued, what Sue Gray has to say and what the verdict of the British people is in the local government elections.
Conservative MPs are not calling for the Prime Minister to go at the moment because “they are withholding their judgment and waiting to see what happens”, he said. Sir Geoffrey added: “The culture in Number 10 has to be advised by the most senior senior civil servants and at the time that the Prime Minister made that statement in Parliament I am absolutely certain that he believed he had not broken any rules.”
