DAVID Wolfson has become the first Government minister to resign over the Prime Minister being fined for breaching his own lockdown rules. 

Wolfson, a minister in the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), has stepped down from his position citing the "scale, context and nature” of the breaches that took place in Downing Street. 

Wolfson added that it was not only the breaches that led him to resign but "more so, the official response to what took place".

Wolfson became a minister for the MoJ in December 2020 and was made Baron Wolfson of Tredegar in the same month. 

Previously a barrister, Wolfson referred to the rule of law and its constitutional significance in his statement as he stood down in protest over the rule breaches. 

He said: "It would be inconsistent with the rule of law for that conduct to pass with constitutional impunity, especially when many in society complied with the rules at great personal cost, and others were fined or prosecuted for similar and sometimes apparently more trivial offences."

His statement comes after Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak paid fines relating to a birthday party held for the PM in the Cabinet room in No 10 in June 2020.

However, neither politician indicated they would consider resigning over the finding by the Metropolitan Police, instead saying they wanted to get on with the job.

It comes as Welsh Secretary Simon Hart indicated Johnson would not resign even if he was fined multiple times in the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Hillman probe.

On Tuesday, Johnson did not rule out the prospect he could be fined again for further events.

He is reported to have attended six of the 12 under investigation.

Hart told Times Radio: “I don’t necessarily see the difference between one or two (fines), for example, the principle is the same.”

He said: “I personally don’t think that for people in public life – or any other walk of life, for that matter – that should necessarily be accompanied by another penalty, which is the removal of your job or similar.”

Earlier, Tory MP Nigel Mills – thought to be the first Tory backbencher to call for Johnson to fall on his sword since the fines landed – told the PA news agency “we have every right to expect higher standards of people making these laws”.

Asked if he thought Johnson’s position was untenable, Amber Valley MP Mills said: “Yeah, I think for a Prime Minister in office to be given a fine and accept it and pay it for breaking the laws that he introduced… is just an impossible position.

“We have every right to expect higher standards of people making these laws… so the idea that he can survive having broken one and accepted he has broken (it), I just think is impossible.”

Both Johnson and Sunak – and Johnson’s wife Carrie, who was also fined – apologised on Tuesday and confirmed they had paid the fines imposed by the Metropolitan Police.

The National: National Extra Scottish politics newsletter banner

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps defended the Prime Minister on Wednesday morning, saying he is “human” and did not knowingly break the law.

Asked on Sky News how Johnson can “possibly remain in office”, Shapps said: “Everyone is human, people sometimes make mistakes.”

On whether Johnson misled Parliament, Shapps told ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme: “I don’t think he knowingly broke the laws when he came to Parliament. We now know that the Metropolitan Police have said that he shouldn’t have stepped into the Cabinet Room when staff had organised a surprise.

“I don’t think he came to Parliament thinking that that breached the rules.”

Other Tory MPs and Cabinet ministers have also shown their support for the Prime Minister, praising his leadership during Covid and Brexit and pointing to the war in Ukraine.

A Home Office source said Johnson has Home Secretary Priti Patel’s “full support” and that it was difficult for Home Office ministers to comment on ongoing police investigations.

Meanwhile, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP have continued to back calls for the Commons to be recalled from its two-week Easter break to allow the Prime Minister to “tender his resignation” in person to MPs.

More than 50 fines have been referred to the Acro Criminal Records Office since the Met’s inquiry started.

Speaking to broadcasters at his country residence, Chequers, on Tuesday, Johnson said it “did not occur” to him at the time that the party for which he was fined might be breaching Covid rules.

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister said: “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.”