By Oyintari Ben
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was fined for not fastening his seatbelt while making a social media video in a moving vehicle.
The 42-year-old man from London was given a conditional offer of a fixed penalty, according to Lancashire Police.
Mr. Sunak “completely accepts this was a mistake and has apologized,” according to No. 10, who also added that he will pay the fee.
When seat belts are provided, passengers who are discovered not using them risk receiving a £100 punishment.
If the matter ends up in court, this could rise to £500.
While travelling through the north of England, the prime minister was in Lancashire at the time the video was shot.
The video was uploaded to Mr. Sunak’s Instagram account to promote the government’s most recent round of “levelling up” expenditure.
Mr. Sunak has now been issued a fixed penalty notice twice while he has been in office.
He was penalized in April of last year along with Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie for violating the Covid lockdown regulations by going to the then-prime minister’s birthday party in Downing Street in June of 2020.
In a tweet, Angela Rayner, the deputy leader of Labour, referred to Mr. Sunak as a “complete liability.”
“Hapless Rishi Sunak’s levelling-up photo op has blown up in his face and made him into a laughing stock,” a Labour Party spokesperson continued.
The Liberal Democrats claimed that he had “shown the same contempt for the rules as Boris Johnson” by becoming the second prime minister to ever be fined by the police.
From partygate to seatbeltgate, these Conservative politicians are simply playing the British people for fools, according to deputy Lib Dem leader Daisy Cooper.
This fine serves as a warning that the Conservatives will eventually pay a price for acting as though there are different rules for them and for everyone else.
However, earlier, Blackpool South Conservative MP Scott Benton said he believed Lancashire Police were wasting their time by looking into the incident.
The majority of people, he claimed, “would believe that politicized complaints about a seatbelt are not effective use of frontline resources.”
