Government ministers will “inevitably” have to reveal any fines they receive over breaches of Covid laws, the deputy prime minister Dominic Raab has conceded.
No 10 has only promised to confirm if Boris Johnson or his cabinet secretary Simon Case are given a fixed penalty notice, after the Metropolitan Police said it was issuing the first 20 fines over Partygate.
However, Mr Raab said any minister fined would also have to be named. Asked if other ministers would disclose fixed penalty notices, Mr Raab told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think that’s inevitably the case, yes.”
The justice secretary said the public would not necessarily be told if Mr Johnsons’ wife, Carrie, was issued with a fine – and defended the principle of protecting civil servants.
“She is not a minister or a politician. The Metropolitan Police do not publish the identities of people subject to fixed penalty notices,” he told the Today programme. “I don’t think it is right to have double standards.”
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Asked if the top civil servants should be named, given the huge public interest in the case, Mr Raab said: “I don’t think you should have double standards from the normal rules that apply.”
Mr Raab refused to be drawn on whether Mr Johnson would have to step down if he did receive one. “I am not going to comment on hypothetical questions or speculate on an ongoing police investigation,” he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
The deputy PM said he did accept Covid laws had been broken. No 10 said on Tuesday that Mr Johnson did not formally accept that the law had been broken – despite the 20 police fines.
Asked on Sky News if the issuing of a fixed penalty notice meant the law had been broken, Mr Raab said: “Yes, inevitably fixed penalty notices (are issued to) those that have breached the regulations.”
The Met would not say how many individuals will get a fine – it is possible some will get more than one if they attended multiple illegal events. The force would also not say which parties the fines relate to.
No 10 has declined to say whether fined individuals can carry on working in No 10, though former chief whip Mark Harper suggested law-breaking civil servants or advisers would have to be sacked.
In a tweet, the senior Tory MP posted a screenshot of the Civil Service Code, highlighting a passage saying they must “comply with the law”.
The College of Policing has said forces must apply proportionality when considering what information to hold back – adding: “The police can consider the details of any investigation to make decisions in the best interests of the public.”
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Meanwhile, Mr Raab also denied that Mr Johnson deliberately misled parliament over government gatherings – saying he had been telling the truth “to the best of his ability”.
The prime minister told the Commons in December that “all guidance was followed completely”. Challenged over the remarks, Mr Raab said: “I don’t think there was an intention to mislead ... The prime minister in good faith updated parliament on what he knows.”
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The senior cabinet minister also told BBC Breakfast: “To jump from that to say he deliberately misled parliament rather than answering to the best of his ability I’m afraid is just not right.”
Mr Johnson will face MPs following the police conclusion that coronavirus laws were broken at the heart of his government – likely to endure a difficult session of PMQs before a further grilling from senior MPs at the Liaison Committee.