Conservative MP calls for PM Boris Johnson to resign after fine

A Conservative MP has become the first from his party to publicly call for Boris Johnson to resign after being fined for breaching lockdown rules.

The prime minister, his wife Carrie and Chancellor Rishi Sunak paid £50 each for attending a birthday party for Mr Johnson in June 2020.

More than 70 Conservative MPs have expressed their support for Mr Johnson.

But Nigel Mills, MP for Amber Valley in Derbyshire, said the prime minister's position was untenable.

With the fine, Mr Johnson became the UK's first serving prime minister to be sanctioned for breaking the law.

Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak have apologised but have not said if they would resign.

Mr Mills said: "I don't think the prime minister can survive or should survive breaking the rules he put in place and was on TV every few nights reminding us all that we should observe.

"We have to have higher standards than that of people at the top.

"He's been fined, I don't think his position is tenable."

The surprise birthday celebration for Mr Johnson took place in Downing Street on 19 June 2020

Later on Wednesday, Calder Valley MP Craig Whittaker also called for the prime minister and chancellor to "do the right thing and resign" during a Facebook Q&A with his constituents.

"You can't set the law of the lands and then break them as they have," he said.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and the first ministers of Scotland and Wales have already demanded Mr Johnson steps down.

Meanwhile, Conservative peer Lord David Wolfson has quit as a justice minister over the official response to Covid law-breaking.

The prime minister can only be removed by a vote of no confidence in Parliament, or by his own MPs organising a leadership contest, neither of which is likely to happen at this stage.

Mr Mills thought it was unlikely Mr Johnson would go.

"It seems pretty clear that he's not going to resign and I'd be very surprised if there were 180 of my colleagues that wanted to change prime minister at this stage," he said.

He said a leadership change during the war in Ukraine was also questionable.

"It's not an easy situation to be in but I suppose the French are managing to have an election in this time, there's no particular reason why we couldn't do a change if we wanted to," he said.

The prime minister said he accepted "in all sincerity that people had the right to expect better" from him