LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was fined by police Friday for taking off his seat belt to film a social media video in a moving car.
Sunak, 42, apologized for making an “error of judgement” when he recorded a message for Instagram from the back of an official government car during a visit to north-west England on Thursday.
Lancashire Police said they were looking into a video “circulating on social media showing a person not wearing a seat belt as a passenger in a moving car in Lancashire”. The force said, without naming Sunak, that it had “released a 42-year-old man from London on a conditional offer of a fixed sentence”.
Failure to wear a seat belt is punishable by a fine of up to £500 ($620), although fixed penalty notices for such offenses are usually £100 ($124) if paid promptly.
via the Associated Press
A conditional offer means that the fined person accepts guilt but does not have to go to court. Police did not say how much Sunak was fined.
Sunak’s office said in a statement that “the prime minister fully accepts that this was a mistake and has apologised. Obviously he will respect the fixed penalty.
It is the second time Sunak has been fined during his political career. Last year, when he ran the Treasury, he was fined £50 for breaking pandemic lockdown rules by briefly attending a party at government offices. He was one of dozens of officials fined over the “partygate” scandal, including then-prime minister Boris Johnson.
Sunak took over as UK leader in October, pledging “integrity, professionalism and accountability” after several tumultuous years in which Johnson was ousted by multiple scandals and his successor, Liz Truss, was ousted after her policies rocked the British economy.
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