(Bloomberg) — UK police have issued Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with a fine after he filmed a clip for social media that showed him in a moving vehicle without wearing a seat belt.
(Bloomberg) — UK police have issued Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with a fine after he filmed a clip for social media that showed him in a moving vehicle without wearing a seat belt.
“You will be aware that a video has been circulating on social media showing an individual failing to wear a seat belt while a passenger in a moving car in Lancashire,” Lancashire Police said in a statement. “After looking into this matter, we have today (Friday, January 20th) issued a 42-year-old man from London with a conditional offer of fixed penalty.”
While the police statement didn’t name the premier, Sunak, 42, has already apologized for failing to wear his seat belt while filming the clip.
“The prime minister fully accepts this was a mistake,” his office said in a statement Friday after the police notice. “He will of course comply with the fixed penalty.”
It’s the second time in less than a year that Sunak has received a police fine, after he was also penalized in April for being present at a gathering to mark former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s birthday in June 2020, in breach of Covid regulations.
Penalties for failing to wear a seat belt are typically £200 ($250) — a sum the premier can easily afford. A millionaire himself, Sunak is married to Akshata Murty, whose stake in Infosys Ltd. — the Indian tech giant co-founded by her father — is worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
(Updates with statement from Sunak’s office in fourth paragraph.)
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