Rishi Sunak branded ‘total liability’ as he faces backlash from MPs after being handed second police fine
Rishi Sunak has been branded a “total liability” and “hapless” as he faced a backlash for being fined for a second time, with police handing him a fixed penalty notice over not wearing a seatbelt.
Lancashire Police issued the notice after the prime minister appeared without a belt in a clip on Instagram as he promoted his levelling-up funding in Lancashire.
Mr Sunak has accepted the fine, with Downing Street saying he “fully accepts this was a mistake” and will “of course comply with the fixed penalty”.
Critics are now accusing the PM of showing “the same disregard for rules” as his Number 10 predecessor Boris Johnson.
‘Hapless’ Sunak has photo-op blow up in face, says Labour – politics latest
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner tweeted: “Rishi Sunak is a total liability.”
Chris Bryant, Labour MP for Rhondda, said: “Sunak promised honesty, integrity and accountability on the steps of Number 10. Not only has he been fined again for breaking the law, but Zahawi has been fined as well. It’s time they all went. It’s time for a general election.”
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner called the PM a ‘total liability’
A Labour spokesperson added: “Hapless Rishi Sunak’s levelling-up photo op has blown up in his face and turned him into a laughing stock.
“He started the week hoping people would be grateful for a partial refund on the money that has been stripped from them over 13 years of the Tories. But instead he got a warring party and yet another fine from the police.”
‘No one is above the law’
Labour MP Cat Smith thanked police for their road safety work before taking a swipe at Mr Sunak by saying “no one is above the law”.
But Tory MP Scott Benton struck a different tone to his fellow Lancashire MP, saying the seatbelt complaint was politically motivated and bad use of police time.
In an apparent bid to downplay the significance of the notice, the Blackpool South MP tweeted: “@LancsPolice do an amazing job, but I’m sure their time is better spent investigating serious crime which impacts on my constituents.
“The vast majority of people would think that politically motivated complaints about a seat belt are not good use of frontline resources.”
Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “Rishi Sunak has shown the same disregard for the rules as Boris Johnson, and now becomes the second ever prime minister to be fined by the police.
“From partygate to seatbelt gate, these Conservative politicians are just taking the British people for fools.
“Whilst they continue to behave as though it’s one rule for them and another for everyone else, this fine is a reminder that the Conservatives eventually get their comeuppance.”
The criticism comes as Labour is also calling on Mr Sunak to dismiss Nadhim Zahawi from his cabinet after questions over the Tory chairman’s tax affairs remain unanswered.
Questions have swirled following an article in The Sun on Sunday, which claimed a seven-figure payment was made by Mr Zahawi to end a dispute with the taxman “after scrutiny of his family’s financial affairs”.
Second serving PM to break the law while in office
Mr Sunak is the second serving prime minister – after Boris Johnson – to be found to have broken the law while in office.
The force said: “You will be aware that a video has been circulating on social media showing an individual failing to wear a seatbelt while a passenger in a moving car in Lancashire.
“After looking into this matter, we have today issued a 42-year-old man from London with a conditional offer of fixed penalty.”
Mr Sunak has previously been fined by the Met Police for breaking lockdown rules.
He and Mr Johnson were fined by the Metropolitan Police over a birthday party held in Downing Street for the former prime minister when curbs were in place.
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Sunak’s slip-ups could be exploited by opponents to brand him out of touch
Downing Street will be hoping that once the PM has paid up, voters and journalists will move on and forget this rather embarrassing unforced error.
To Rishi Sunak’s credit, he put his hands up and admitted the error almost immediately.
But it is a reminder that in the top job, with a permacrisis of strikes, NHS delays and high inflation, mistakes can slip through the Number 10 net.
Failing to wear a seatbelt is illegal, but filming it and publishing the evidence on social media suggests a lack of checks within the PM’s team.
This is the second police fine Mr Sunak has received in 9 months, after the Met Police punished him for attending a lockdown-busting birthday gathering for Boris Johnson.
In recent months Mr Sunak has struggled with contactless payments, had an awkward conversation with a homeless man about financial services, and demonstrated a fondness for using private jets to travel around the UK even for relatively short journeys.
Added together, such slip-ups may be exploited by the PM’s enemies to claim he is out of touch.
There is certainly a danger these small missteps distract from Rishi Sunak’s attempts to stabilise the economy and sort out seemingly intractable issues like migrant crossings and delayed discharges.
Like many occupants of Number 11, Rishi Sunak was a ‘submarine chancellor’. Invisible below the waves for months on end, he occasionally rose from the deep to launch a killer economic intervention: his “whatever it takes” COVID budget, the furlough scheme, Eat Out To Help Out.
But as Gordon Brown (the last politician to move from 11 to 10) found, similar manoeuvres are not possible as prime minister.
You are constantly in the spotlight. And it is an unsparing existence.
Law must be applied ‘impartially’
Sky News’ policing analyst Graham Wettone said he is “not surprised” about the notice, adding that it is the “right and proper” resolution.
“It is exactly what would happen to anybody else if they were to commit a similar offence and the police discovered it.”
Mr Wettone dismissed criticism that the prime minister has been treated unfairly, suggesting the case was “fairly simple” and that the law must be applied “impartially”.
Fines of up to £500 can be issued for failing to wear a seatbelt when one is available.
There are a few exemptions, including when a car is being used for police, fire and rescue services, and for certified medical issues.
Mr Sunak came to office promising “integrity” after the scandals that eventually forced Mr Johnson from office.
Mr Sunak’s premiership has been hit with a series of controversies since he entered Number 10 in October, from criticism for reinstating Suella Braverman as home secretary six days after she was forced to step down over a security breach to an ongoing bullying inquiry into Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister.
Thousands have fled parts of Gaza City in recent days amid airstrikes and advancing Israeli troops, new satellite imagery shows.
Israel’s advance comes as it prepares to mount a full-scale invasion of the city, where the UN says around one million Palestinians are sheltering.
Satellite imagery shows that entire tent camps in southeast Gaza City were emptied between 9 and 17 August as families fled the renewed attacks.
The video below shows the moment of an airstrike in southeastern Gaza City on 13 August. Sky News geolocated the footage to a building less than 200 metres from a major tent camp.
Another video, taken on 15 August, shows a strike on a building right next to the camp.
By the following day, almost all the camp’s residents had fled, along with people sheltering at 30 other locations in the area.
Fresh vehicle tracks in the area indicate extensive troop movements on the ground.
The satellite image below, taken on 17 August, shows at least nine military vehicles in the streets surrounding one former tent camp.
Sky News counted 58 military vehicles in the area on 17 August, including 17 bulldozers.
The image below shows four IDF vehicles, including a bulldozer, parked next to the remains of one tent camp. Several nearby buildings had been levelled in the days beforehand.
Between 9 and 17 August, at least 132 buildings were destroyed in less than one square kilometre of the city.
It’s unclear how much of the destruction was carried out by IDF bulldozers and how much was a result of airstrikes.
On Monday, eyewitnesses reported that Israeli tanks had made further advances into eastern Gaza City.
The advances came as Hamas said it had approved a ceasefire deal presented by mediators Egypt and Qatar. Israel has yet to respond to the proposal.
Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed his country’s military to prepare for a full-scale invasion and occupation of the city in order to “free Gaza from Hamas”.
The UN has said that the invasion risks “catastrophic consequences” for the estimated one million Palestinians sheltering in the city, while UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the plan would “only bring more bloodshed”.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
World
Andrew and Dawn Searle: Actor son of ‘murder-suicide’ victim urges late mother’s friends not to attend stepfather’s funeral
An actor and musician whose mother was the victim of a suspected murder-suicide in France has urged her friends not to attend his stepfather’s funeral.
Callum Kerr, who starred in Hollyoaks and Netflix’s Virgin River, said it would be “inappropriate” for the memory of his mum to be associated with a service honouring the man who “may have been responsible for her death”.
The bodies of British couple Andrew and Dawn Searle were discovered on 6 February at their home in the hamlet of Les Pesquies.
Mrs Searle’s body was found outside the property with a significant head injury, while Mr Searle’s body was discovered inside.
The couple lived in the hamlet of Les Pesquies
Officers locked down the scene following the February incident
Prosecutors later ruled the incident to be murder-suicide due to a lack of evidence that someone else was involved.
In an Instagram post on behalf of himself and his sister, Amanda Kerr, Mr Kerr said: “In the absence of any evidence suggesting third-party involvement in the tragic death of our mother, Dawn Kerr, the prevailing hypothesis remains that of a murder-suicide.”
Mr Kerr, a country music singer who is also set to appear in the second season of Netflix’s One Piece, said his mother was “killed by multiple blows to the head”, while “no defensive wounds” were found on Mr Searle.
Mr Kerr said: “While the official investigation is still ongoing, we cannot ignore the circumstances as they stand.
“For this reason, we must respectfully but firmly request that our mother not be included in any way in the funeral arrangements being made for Andrew.
“Please do not share photographs of them together. Please do not attend Andrew’s service if you were a friend of our mother.
“It would be inappropriate for her memory to be associated with a service honouring the man who, based on all available evidence, may have been responsible for her death.
“We ask for understanding, privacy and respect as we continue to grieve and seek justice for our mum.”
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Mr and Mrs Searle, who previously lived in Musselburgh in East Lothian, had been living in the Aveyron region for five years.
They lived in Les Pesquies and were married in 2023 in the nearby town of Villefranche-de-Rouergue, with Mr Kerr walking his mum down the aisle.
Neighbours described them as a happy couple, who had fully integrated into rural French life and held an annual party for villagers.
Jean-Sebastien Orcibal, the mayor of Villefranche-de-Rouergue who conducted the couple’s wedding, told Sky News they were “very happy, very friendly and didn’t seem to have any problems”.
Police at the scene in February
Mrs Searle, 56, grew up in Eyemouth in the Scottish Borders, while Mr Searle, 62, was originally from England.
According to his LinkedIn page, Mr Searle retired in 2015 after previously working in financial crime prevention at companies including Standard Life and Barclays.
Following the deaths, investigators were said to be following several lines of inquiry – including whether the couple were killed during a burglary or potential links to Mr Searle’s previous work in the UK.
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