PM facing resignation calls after Covid fines for Whitehall lockdown parties
Boris Johnson is facing calls to resign as Prime Minister after police said the law had been broken over lockdown-busting Downing Street parties.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed they were issuing 20 fines to people over their investigation into Covid-breaching parties in Whitehall and Downing Street.
The identities of those receiving fixed penalty notices will not be made public but Downing Street has said Mr Johnson is not included in those sanctioned.
More fines could follow as officers said they continue to sift through evidence.
The county's North Shropshire Liberal Democrat MP, Helen Morgan, said the Prime Minister had lied when he said "the guidelines were followed at all times".
She said he should now resign.
A spokesman for Mr Johnson said he was not misleading on the numerous occasions he defended the saga, despite wrongdoing now being confirmed.
"At all times, he has set out his understanding of events," he said.
Downing Street has also declined to say whether fined individuals can carry on working in No 10, though former chief whip Mark Harper suggested law-breaking civil servants or special advisers would have to be sacked.
In a tweet, the Tory MP posted a screenshot of the Civil Service Code, highlighting a passage saying they must "comply with the law".
Mrs Morgan said: "Boris Johnson has lied to Parliament, and he has lied to the country. He told us there were no parties and that all guidance was followed. Now we see fines being handed out to those who worked there.
"In the light of the sacrifices so many across this country made, it is totally unacceptable, and Boris Johnson must go.”
The view was echoed by the Labour leader of Telford & Wrekin Council, Shaun Davies, who said: "The police have concluded that the law was broken in Downing Street in the heart of Boris Johnson's government – the street where the rules the rest of us followed were set.
"Johnson has continued to lie about the scandal, including in parliament and to the British public.
"He should do the decent and honourable thing and resign – and if he doesn't, Conservative MPs should side with residents and remove him."
None of the county's Conservative MPs – Shrewsbury & Atcham MP, Daniel Kawczynski, Ludlow MP, Philip Dunne, Wrekin MP, Mark Pritchard, Telford MP Lucy Allan, or Mid Wales' Montgomeryshire MP Craig Williams, were available for comment.
