He apologized and will have to pay a fine of around $620.
Police fined UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Fridayfor removing his seatbelt to record a video for social media from a moving car.
Sunak, 42, apologized for his misjudgment during the recording of a message for Instagram on Thursday from the back seat of an official car during a visit to the North West of England.
Lancashire Police said they had seen video “circulating on social media showing an unbelted passenger in a moving car in Lancashire.” The force said, without mentioning Sunak’s name, that it “sent a 42-year-old man from London a conditional offer of a fixed penalty.”
Failure to wear a seat belt is punishable by a fine of up to $620 (500 pounds).. The conditional offer means that the person fined accepts the blame for him, but does not have to go to trial. Police did not specify how much Sunak was fined.
In a statement, Sunak’s office said “Prime Minister fully accepts that this was a mistake and has apologized. Of course he will comply with the fixed penalty.”
This is the second time Sunak has been fined during his political career. Last year, when he was head of the Treasury, he was fined £50 for breaching pandemic lockdown rules by briefly attending a party at government offices. He was one of dozens of officials fined in the scandal known as “Partygate”including then Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Sunak took over as UK prime minister in October, pledging “integrity, professionalism and accountability” after tumultuous years in which Johnson was ousted following various scandals and his successor, Liz Truss, ousted after her policies destabilized the UK economy.
This was the “Partygate” that put Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak in check
In June 2022, the civil servant Sue Gray was in charge of making a report on the “Partygate” that put the government of Boris Johnson in check.
In it, he asked the government to take responsibility for what happened and criticized the high consumption of alcohol in these events.
The holidays were held in the period between May 20, 2020 and April 16, 2021, when the UK was in compliance with strict restrictive measures to contain the spread of COVID-19.
In that time, some members of the residence hall wanted to raise concerns about behavior they witnessed at work, but sometimes felt unable to do so.
Several photographs were included in the dossier in which the prime minister can be seen participating in some events, smiling and raising a glass of wine in celebration.
With information from agencies
DB