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UK's Johnson seeks to put fine behind him with immigration plan

14 April 2022 02:40 (UTC +04:00)

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will on Thursday try to switch attention to the issue of illegal immigration and away from angry calls for his resignation after he was fined for breaking his own COVID-19 lockdown rules, APA reports citing Reuters

Johnson was fined on Tuesday for attending a gathering in his Downing Street office for his birthday in June 2020 when social mixing was all but banned under rules his government had introduced.

Opposition politicians said it was the first time a serving prime minister had been found to have broken the law and demanded Johnson quit. He has rejected those calls, and critics in his own Conservative Party said the current crisis in Ukraine meant it was the wrong time to replace him.

In a speech on Thursday, he will try to move the focus away from his own behaviour to targeting illegal immigration, an issue popular with many in his party and one that has been a hot topic with the public for years, and which helped the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union.