British Prime Minister Boris Johnson fined for COVID-19 lockdown parties

April 12 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be fined for attending then-illegal parties at 10 Downing Street during COVID-19 lockdown, London's Metropolitan Police confirmed on Tuesday.

The Prime Minister's wife, Carrie Johnson, will also be fined for violating lockdown laws, as will Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

All three were reportedly at the same gathering for the prime minister's birthday in June 2020.

Police have now fined more than 50 people who attended the parties, after a lengthy investigation.

The investigation of what became dubbed "Partygate" looked at eight dates spanning from May 20, 2020, to April 16, 2021.

At the time of the parties, Britain was in the midst of a strict COVID-19 lockdown. The news sparked national outrage.

Johnson is the first sitting Prime Minister to receive any sort of punishment for breaking the law.

"Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak will be issued with fines for breaches of COVID-19 regulations following allegations of lockdown parties in Downing Street and Whitehall," a spokesperson for Johnson's office told The Evening Standard.

Members of Johnson's Conservative Party called for his resignation when news of the parties first became public.

On Tuesday, after news of the fines, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also called for Johnson and Sunak to step down.

"Boris Johnson must resign. He broke the law and repeatedly lied to parliament about it. The basic values of integrity and decency -- essential to the proper working of any parliamentary democracy -- demand that he go. And he should take his out of touch chancellor with him," Sturgeon wrote on Twitter.