Matt Fowler, a co-founder of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, said: “It’s a reality that is unbelievably painful for bereaved families like mine to face as we try and move forward with our lives.”
Nazir Afzal, a former chief prosecutor, said Downing Street was a “crime scene”, adding: “Boris Johnson is the first sitting Prime Minister to be judged guilty of a crime. [Rishi] Sunak the first Chancellor to be fined. Carrie is the first PM’s wife to be fined.”
Reece Dinsdale, the actor, said it was “deplorable” for the Ukraine war to be used as an argument to support Mr Johnson remaining in his position.
“Now these despicable shysters are all using the war in Ukraine as an excuse not to call for the PM’s head. Am I the only person who finds this utterly tasteless, sick and deplorable? How DARE they cynically use the suffering of others to justify saving their own skins!
“Not one of them with the guts to stand up and say sorry to those who had to leave their loved ones to suffer and die alone. Entitled cowards… every last one of them.”
Dominique Samuels, the political commentator, said the hypocrisy of making others follow rules that you are breaking was “disgusting”.
She added: “I don’t care where you stand on the ‘partygate’ issue. Anyone with an ounce of common sense can see that for both the Prime Minister and Chancellor to receive fines for breaking the same rules they made the rest of us follow is just absolutely disgusting.”
Jo Maugham, a barrister and the director of the Good Law Project, wrote in The Independent: “Whatever you think of this prime minister, today is an important day.
“In 1733 Dr Thomas Fuller wrote ‘Be you ever so high, the law is above you.’ What today shows is that, almost 300 years later, his words remain true.”
