GEORGE MCMILLAN FROM GB NEWS
Dominic Raab has defended the Prime Minister after he received a fixed penalty notice for not wearing a seatbelt.
The Deputy Prime Minister said Rishi Sunak had not tried to pass the blame to anyone else and suggested that he felt the public would accept he was human and can make mistakes.
Speaking to Breakfast on GB News this morning Raab said: “What I can tell you is of course, the Prime Minister put his hand straight up. It was a mistake. He apologised for it. He takes responsibility for it.
“He hasn’t actually gone down that path of blaming anyone else. He’ll pay the fine. He’s a human as well as an incredibly busy Prime Minister.
“He has a frantic schedule but he has made clear there are no excuses.”
Raab said it was “perfectly proper” for police to have looked into the seatbelt blunder, adding: “We wouldn’t second-guess the role of the police in this.”
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner accused Sunak of displaying a “lack of judgment” having received his second fixed penalty notice in less than a year.
He previously paid one as chancellor, alongside Boris Johnson, amid the partygate scandal for attending a lockdown-busting gathering to mark the then-prime minister’s birthday.
Sunak is the second prime minister in history, after Johnson, to be slapped with a police fine while in the top job.
Lancashire Constabulary, who issued the notice, did not reveal how much Sunak was fined. But fixed penalty notices for seatbelt offences are usually £100, rising to up to £500 if taken to court.
