Boris Johnson defied calls to quit
yesterday as he became the first British
prime minister found to have broken
the law in office.
Johnson admitted that “people had
the right to expect better” after he and
Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, were fined
by the police for attending a lockdown-
breaking birthday gathering in the
cabinet room in No 10 on June 19, 2020.
The Times understands that Sunak
was on the brink of quitting in the hours
after he received notice of the fine.
After more than seven hours of public
silence he made an “unreserved apo-
logy” and said that he was “focused on
delivering for the British people”.
Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader,
and other opposition figures called for
both men to resign and for parliament
to be recalled to debate the scandal.
However, Conservative MPs backed
away from an immediate challenge to
Johnson’s leadership. Several who had
previously called for him to quit voiced
their support for now.
The prime minister said he had not
realised that he was breaking the rules
by attending the event on his 56th
birthday. He offered a “full apology”
but said the best thing he could do was
to “focus on the job at hand”.
Johnson and Sunak were handed £
fines. Johnson’s wife, Carrie, was also
fined. The three were among 30
government figures and officials who
received fines yesterday for breaking
pandemic restrictions. The fines issued
so far number more than 50.
Johnson has repeatedly claimed that
no rules were broken. Last Friday he
dismissed much of the criticism sur-
rounding the parties as “a lot of non-
sense”. In a statement from Chequers
he tried to defend himself by claiming
the rule-breaking gathering had lasted
less than ten minutes.
“I understand the anger that many
will feel that I myself fell short when
it came to observing the very rules
which the government I lead had intro-
duced to protect the public, and I accept
in all sincerity that people had a right to
expect better,” he said. “Now I feel an
even greater sense of obligation to
deliver on the priorities of the British
people.”
The prime minister, who has repeat-
edly insisted in the Commons that he
had been assured no rules were broken
in Downing Street, denied that he hadlied to MPs, which is normally a resig-
nation offence. “When I said that, I
spoke in completely good faith,” he said.
Sunak was understood to be angry
that he had been fined for attending the
birthday gathering, to which he had not
been invited. He was there to attend
another meeting with Johnson.
Sir Roger Gale, one of the first ToryOliver Wright Policy Editor
Henry Zeffman Associate Political Editor
Chris Smyth Whitehall Editor
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four-year deal. Page 70Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak accepted breaking the law in No 10 in June 2020. Both men apologised for attending the eventJohnson refuses to quit
over lockdown party fine
MPs to put in a letter of no confidence
in Johnson, said he was “not prepared
to seek to destabilise the government
with a leadership election when we’re
in the middle of an international crisis”.
Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conserv-
ative leader, who last month withdrew
his letter of no confidence, said that it
Continued on page 2, col 5Putin bids to
outnumber
Ukrainians
five to one
Larisa Brown Defence EditorRussia is attempting to muster a force
that will outnumber Ukrainian troops
in the east of the country five to one.
A Ukrainian military source said
Russian troops were being brought in
from across the region for what Moscow
hoped would be a decisive battle in
Donbas. They insisted the force, com-
prising tens of thousands of soldiers,
would still fall short of the number
needed for Russia to win.
Some western sources expect the of-
fensive to begin by the end of the week.
President Putin said yesterday that his
campaign would continue until victory.
Satellite images and reports suggest
Russia is building up troops and
equipment in at least three places on
Ukraine’s border, in the Belgorod and
Voronezh regions, and around the
southern town of Matveev Kurgan.
Operating under a new commander,
General Alexander Dvornikov, who
played a prominent role in the Syrian
civil war, Russian troops are reinforcing
their operations around Izyum, south-
east of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine.
Those forces are expected to try to push
further south to seize Slovyansk,
according to the Institute for the Study
of War, a US think tank. From there,
they could advance to the southeast to
encircle a Ukrainian contingent.
If the besieged port city of Mariupol
falls, up to 6,000 Russian troops could
be freed up to push north and complete
the encirclement of another large
group of Ukrainian troops.
The Ukrainians, who have been
fighting pro-Russian separatists in
Donbas since 2014, have developed
extensive fortifications and dug in
across the east. Some of their best-
equipped and most-skilled battalions
are stationed there, although the size of
the force is unclear.
General Sir Richard Barrons, a
former British military chief, said: “[The
Russians] will try to put more ground
forces in the face of the Ukrainians at
once to get the force ratios right, know-
ing the Ukrainians in the east are in
very well-prepared positions.” He said
well-established defensive positions
were “really difficult to overcome” and
that experts talked about the need for a
Continued on page 2, col 3ANDREW PARSONS/10 DOWNING STREET HANDOUT6 PM is first found to have broken law in office 6 Chancellor also penalised for No 10 gathering
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