Minister compares PM party penalty to speeding fine

Cabinet minister Brandon Lewis has been criticised for likening Boris Johnson's lockdown fixed penalty to former ministers receiving speeding fines.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said ministers' excuses were getting more pathetic by the day and called them an "insult to bereaved families".

It comes ahead of Mr Johnson making his first statement since being fined.

He is expected to apologise and say he did not knowingly break the rules at a birthday party at No 10 in 2020.

Mr Johnson has vowed to "set the record straight" when he speaks to MPs at about 16.30 BST.

He is also expected to urge MPs to focus instead on issues like rising prices and the war in Ukraine.

Opposition parties have accused the prime minister of lying to Parliament after he previously told them no rules had been broken.

Speaking on ITV, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: "He's not just broken the rules, he's lied to the public and he's lied to Parliament about it."

He accused the PM of using the conflict in Ukraine as a "shield" to keep his job, adding that he finds such a tactic "pretty offensive".

Sir Keir predicted: "He will try an apology, and he will immediately then go into excuses."

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said he would allow a debate on Thursday on whether to refer Mr Johnson to the privileges committee over his past statements to Parliament about parties.

In an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Northern Ireland secretary Mr Lewis defended the prime minister's position, saying he had handled the fixed penalty the "right way".

He referred to reports of Conservative and Labour ministers being given speeding fines over the years - without naming individuals - before hastily adding that he was not "in any way trying to equate a speeding ticket with the situation and sacrifices people made with Covid".

A Parliamentarian getting a fixed notice should accept, acknowledge and apologise for it, he said, adding: "That is the right way to handle that - and that is what the prime minister has done."

Labour's Sir Keir, 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."

Mr Johnson became the first serving UK prime minister to be sanctioned for breaking the law when, along with his wife Carrie and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, he was fined last week for attending the birthday event held for him in the Cabinet Room in June 2020.

The PM is facing accusations of lying to MPs because he initially told them Covid rules had been followed in No 10 after the first reports of parties emerged last year.

Under government rules, ministers are expected to resign for knowingly misleading MPs - and correct the record as soon as possible if they inadvertently tell Parliament something false.

Mr Johnson has said it "did not occur" to him the June 2020 event could have broken the rules. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has argued Mr Johnson had not "knowingly" mislead MPs.

SNP leader and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has accused Mr Johnson of "repeatedly" lying to Parliament about his fine, and said the "basic values of integrity and decency" meant he should resign.

Alongside staff leaving parties on 18 June 2020 and 16 April 2021, the June 2020 birthday event is among three so far known to have attracted fines.

Mr Johnson is known to have attended at least two further events of the 12 being investigated by police, meaning he could be fined again.

Opposition parties are calling for the prime minister and chancellor to resign over their fines - but the two men have been backed by their fellow cabinet ministers.

More than 70 Conservative MPs have expressed their support for Mr Johnson since he was fined, including some who have previously called for him to go.

Since Mr Johnson was fined last week, only a handful of Tory MPs have publicly said he should quit.

When asked whether there was a party in Downing Street on 18 December 2020, Boris Johnson told the Commons on 1 December 2021 that "all guidance was followed completely in No 10".

After the publication of a video showing No 10 staff joking about the 18 December event, he told MPs on 8 December 2021 he had been "repeatedly assured" that "there was no party and that no Covid rules were broken".

Later that day, he told the Commons he was "sure that whatever happened, the guidance was followed and the rules were followed at all times".

On 12 January 2022, he apologised for attending a Downing Street garden party on 20 May 2020 but said he had "believed implicitly" it was a work event.