The UK government has acknowledged a «brief error of judgment» by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who has sparked controversy after he recorded a video for Instagram showing himself aboard a car without wearing a seatbelt.
«It was a brief error of judgment. The prime minister took off his seat belt to record a short video,» a Downing Street spokesman said Thursday, according to British television Sky News.
According to the government spokesman, Prime Minister Sunak «fully accepts his mistake and apologizes for it,» because he believes that «everyone should wear a seat belt» when riding in a car.
Sunak has been criticized recently for making use of a Royal Air Force — the British Air Force — plane to travel to Blackpool instead of going by train. «Sunak does not know how to use a seat belt (…) a train service, the economy, nor this country,» Labour has reproached.
For their part, the Liberal Democrats have ironized that perhaps Sunak is already so used to traveling by private plane that he has even «forgotten to wear a seat belt in a car».
«The fact that he is breaking a basic law is disgraceful and, frankly, dangerous,» lamented Liberal Democrat number two Daisy Cooper.
British legislation establishes financial penalties of up to 500 pounds–more than 570 euros–for not wearing a seat belt, although with exceptions, such as in police and fire vehicles or when medical problems are justified.
According to data provided by the British Department of Transport, around 30 percent of the people who died in traffic accidents in the country were not wearing seat belts.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
