Equal before the law?

PICTURE the lockdown scene: bottles on the table and glasses charged in the air. The result? Everyone in the room gets a fine. Not so, it seems, when the party takes place in Downing Street and one of the attendees is Boris Johnson.

Yesterday, the decision by the Met not to fine the Prime Minister for attending parties for which more junior staff were punished seemed a curious one. Today, following the leak of pictures showing Johnson raising a glass at such a gathering, many have been left confounded.

Our Courts Correspondent, Tristan Kirk, has reported throughout the pandemic of the police routinely fining individuals for even minor lockdown breaches, without long pauses for questionnaires.

The public deserves transparency, something wholly lacking throughout this process. Confidence in the police, and the very idea of equality in front of the law, is at stake.