© The MirrorThe UK PM pictured at one of the many parties thrown at Number 10 Downing Street that violated the lockdowns the government were enforcing on the public.
Boris Johnson is tonight clinging to power after police fined him for attending an illegal Partygate event - because Tory MPs refuse to boot him out of No10 while there is a war in Ukraine.
He today became the first serving Prime Minister in history to be penalised for law-breaking as No10 confirmed he will receive a fixed-penalty notice (FPN) for attending a Cabinet room birthday party arranged by his wife.
Mr Johnson, Carrie and Chancellor Rishi Sunak - who all attended the event - are among a tranche of 30 more FPNs notices dished out by Scotland Yard this afternoon to people who broke lockdown rules.
They have been sanctioned by Operation Hillman for breaking the law at illicit events that took place while millions of ordinary Britons were showing self-sacrifice and obeying restrictive Covid rules for the good of the country.
Mr Johnson tonight faced demands from the opposition to resign after making political and criminal history. But Tory MPs who previously demanded he quit pulled their punches, citing his role in leading Western support for Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion.
However, some suggested the situation might only be a stay of execution. North Leicestershire MP Andrew Bridgen, who handed in a letter of no-confidence in the PM earlier this year, said:
'I am pleased that the police have investigated this matter thoroughly, but very disappointed that so many in number 10 including the PM were found to have breached the rules they set for the rest of us.His comments were echoed by Johnson critic Sir Roger Gale, who said:
'This is not the time to remove the PM given the international situation, but this is not the end of this matter.'
'I am not prepared to give Vladimir Putin the comfort of thinking that we are about to unseat the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and destabilise the coalition against Putin.A former minister told MailOnline that Mr Johnson's position was 'far better' than six or eight weeks ago and he was showing his strengths by managing the threat of a 'third world war'.
'So any reaction to this is going to have to wait until we have dealt with the main crisis which is Ukraine and the Donbas.'
The Metropolitan Police did not disclose if Boris Johnson was among those to be sanctioned with a £50 fine. Downing Street initially indicated that he was not.
But this afternoon a No10 spokeswoman said:
'The Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer have today received notification that the Metropolitan police intend to issue them with fixed penalty notices. 'The statement did not mention Carrie Johnson. But her spokeswoman later said she had been fined and had already accepted and paid it. 'Whilst she believed that she was acting in accordance with the rules at the time, Mrs Johnson accepts the Metropolitan Police's findings and apologises unreservedly.'
Downing Street later confirmed that the fine was in relation to the PM's birthday party on June 19, 2020 - at which one ally previously said he'd been 'ambushed by a cake'.
Questions will also be raised over his honesty towards MPs. Last year he told the Commons that 'all guidance was followed completely in No 10'. Mr Sunak, last December, also told MPs he did not attend any parties.
The Prime Minister, who is at his Chequers country retreat, has yet to publicly acknowledge that the fines being issued by the police are evidence of law-breaking by senior figures in his Government and Whitehall.
Bereaved families said there is 'simply no way' the Prime Minister and Chancellor can continue in post, after the pair were told they will be fined as part of a police probe into allegations of lockdown parties held at Downing Street
Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats demanded Parliament be recalled from its Easter recess to allow MPs to grill the Prime Minister.
© Press AssociationThe Metropolitan Police did not disclose if Prime Minister Boris Johnson (pictured in Kyiv at the weekend) was among those to be sanctioned.
'The British public made the most unimaginable, heart-wrenching sacrifices, and many were overcome by guilt. Guilt at not seeing elderly relatives, not going to funerals or weddings, or even seeing the birth of their own children.But even Douglass Ross, the Scottish Tory leader who was among the first to call for Mr Johnson to resign earlier this year, stepped back from the edge.
'But the guilty men are the Prime Minister and the Chancellor. They've dishonoured all of that sacrifice, they've dishonoured their office.
'This is the first time in the history of our country that a Prime Minister has been found to be in breach of the law, and then he lied repeatedly to the public about it.
'Britain deserves better, they have to go.'
He said:
'The public are rightly furious at what happened in Downing Street during the pandemic. I understand why they are angry and share their fury. The behaviour was unacceptable. The Prime Minister now needs to respond to these fines being issued.One northern Tory MP who has been heavily critical of Mr Johnson suggested there will not be a move against him until next month.
'However, as I've made very clear, in the middle of war in Europe, when Vladimir Putin is committing war crimes and the UK is Ukraine's biggest ally, as President Zelensky said at the weekend, it wouldn't be right to remove the Prime Minister at this time.
'It would destabilise the UK Government when we need to be united in the face of Russian aggression and the murdering of innocent Ukrainians.'
'I predict nothing will happen until results of local elections are in and the verdict of the electorate is seen, one way or the other,' they told MailOnline.
© REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File PhotoBritain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak leaves Downing Street, in London, Britain, November 25, 2020.
And the former minister alleged 'damaged' Mr Sunak would just end up 'spending more time with his money' if he decided to quit thinking the Tory Party would respect his 'principle'.
They added: 'Rishi could just walk but if he does it is not because of the fine, it is because there is a lot more to come out on the tax front... He might think the Tory Party would hold him in high regard for his principles but it would backfire spectacularly. Nobody would forgive him.'
The MP added: 'He'd better make really sure he's got an alternative career plan, or he will be able to spend more time with his money.'
Scotland Yard said it had referred a further 30 FPNs on top of the 20 it had already revealed to the ACRO Criminal Records Office 'for breaches of Covid-19 regulations' in 2020 and 2021.
And outside the Conservative ranks the mood was apocalyptic.
© ScotsmanNicola Sturgeon
'Boris Johnson must resign. He broke the law and repeatedly lied to parliament about it. The basic values of integrity and decency - essential to the proper working of any parliamentary democracy - demand that he go. And he should take his out of touch chancellor with him.'Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:
'These fines expose the shocking scale of the criminality in Boris Johnson's Number 10.Lobby Akinnola, spokesman for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, said Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak 'broke the law' and 'took us all for mugs'.
'The police have now completely shredded Johnson's claims that no laws were broken. He cannot be trusted and cannot continue as Prime Minister.
'No other leader in any other organisation would be allowed to continue after law-breaking on this scale. If Boris Johnson won't resign, Conservative MPs must show him the door.'
He said: 'There is simply no way either the Prime Minister or Chancellor can continue. Their dishonesty has caused untold hurt to the bereaved.
Comment: Nothing like a convenient war to save one's bacon.