Police ticket Rishi Sunak for not wearing a seatbelt in the back seat

Some conservative columnist has already uproared the "frivolity" of the new scandal, and has even lamented that government ministers no longer share lovers with a Soviet attaché, as in the famous "Profumo case", or are caught in a sadomasochism session.

The controversy of the week, which involves the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and has ended with a traffic ticket, is considerably milder.

The Lancashire county police have communicated their decision to impose a conditional sanction – which implies the payment of an amount of 100 pounds, about 115 euros, and withdrawal of points – “to a 42-year-old citizen from London”.

The citizen was none other than Sunak, and the fine was the consequence of the clumsiness of his communication team.

The prime minister was visiting three towns in the north of England this week to promote his government's regional economic equalization plan.

At one point during the visit, they had the brilliant idea of ​​recording a video for Instagram in which Sunak recounted his plans.

Sitting in the back of the official car, without wearing a seatbelt, he looks at the camera and addresses the citizens.

As it is a moving vehicle, the law requires the use of a seat belt.

When social media users noticed the breach, Downing Street removed the video from his account, with the Prime Minister apologizing for what had been a "brief error of judgement".

In any case, there was no alternative left for the police, who after briefly investigating the incident have proceeded to fine Sunak.

It is not the first time that he has received a fine for breaking the law while in government.

When he held the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer, during Boris Johnson's tenure, he was also penalized—along with the then Prime Minister and his wife, Carrie Johnson—for attending one of the parties banned from Downing Street during lockdown.

It was June 16, 2020, when the room where government ministers usually meet was used to offer Johnson a surprise cake for his birthday.

clumsiness

Sunak, a great fan of social networks, has already committed several blunders that have delighted the Labor opposition, such as when he was unable to pay for a drink with a contact credit card.

"He doesn't know how to put on a seatbelt, he doesn't know how to handle a payment card, the railway service doesn't work [because of the strikes], nor the economy, nor the country," said a spokesman for the main opposition party.

“All of this is tragic proof of the UK's decline,” Brendan O'Neill has written in

, the magazine that best sums up the soul of classic British conservatism.

“We used to be the world masters when it came to generating industry, pop music or scandals (...).

Where before we were able to produce John Profumo and the glorious Christine Keeler [the minister and mistress who was also related to the Soviet attache], now we produce headlines with the prime minister sitting in the back of his car.

Get ready now, Great Britain!

We need a proper political scandal as soon as possible”.

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