Covid rule-breaker Boris Johnson pushed for 'bigger fines' for public
Covid rule-breaker Boris Johnson demanded "BIGGER FINES" be emphasised as the country emerged from the first lockdown, it has emerged.
In handwritten notes revealed by the Covid Inquiry, the-then PM said the penalties should be the "overriding message" as he eased restrictions in summer 2020.
The ex-Tory leader, whose premiership was rocked by the Partygate scandal, was himself fined in office for a rule-busting bash to mark his 56th birthday in the Cabinet room. The event in June 2020 also led to the PM's wife Carrie Johnson and the then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak being issued with fixed penalty notices.
It was heard on Thursday that as the country prepared to ease restrictions that summer, Mr Johnson told colleagues: "I agree with the openings but the OVERRIDING MESSAGE should be about tougher enforcement and BIGGER FINES".
The inquiry was shown the note as Dame Priti Patel, the Home Secretary during the Covid crisis and ally of the ex-PM, faced a grilling. Lead lawyer to the Covid Inquiry Hugo Keith KC asked the ex-Cabinet Minister to put aside the "crushing irony" of Mr Johnson's note as he asked her about enforcement.
Teachers, civil servants and train drivers walk out in biggest strike in decade
But Ms Patel told the Inquiry she believed the most severe fine of £10,000 for "large gatherings" was too high and disproportionate. Asked whether the Home Office pushed back to say the flat fine was disproportionate, Dame Priti added: "It was the Home Office in that collective sense."
The handwritten note by the ex-PM Boris Johnson in the summer of 2022 (PA)She also hit out at the "inflexibility" of the Department of Health and Social Care , led by the then Health Secretary Matt Hancock, in drawing up the Covid regulations for the public.
"We were there to actually explain potentially what would work and what wouldn't work - and there was a lot that didn't work," she told the Inquiry.
Dame Priti said that a "completely different system" would need to be in place in future pandemics to prevent the chaos witnessed during Covid. Mr Keith said that she "must have screamed" at the DHSC when they presented new regulations at the "11th hour". Ms Patel replied: "And we did".
Pressed on whether there was a "high degree of confusion" regarding some of the "complex" regulations, she added: "I would completely agree." During the session the ex-Home Secretary also said she was "dismayed" at the "totally inappropriate" policing at a vigil following the murder of Sarah Everard.
The vigil in 2021 on Clapham Common in London witnessed police officers arresting women and pinning one to the floor in scenes that provoked outrage. Dame Priti said: "I saw the news that night and just felt that that was totally inappropriate policing. So, inevitably, I had to raise that with the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and then a lot of other work took place thereafter."
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
