Johnson and Sunak scandals bode ill for UK's May election

FORMER Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who won four general elections in the 60s and 70s, famously coined in 1964 the phrase that "a week is a long time in politics".

Almost six decades later, the continuing relevance of his remark has been clear, with the UK government having been rocked by a series of new revelations concerning Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, the UK's two top ministers. This has culminated, to date, with the disclosures on Tuesday that both have now paid fixed penalty notices issued by the police for violating - in Downing Street - coronavirus lockdown laws.

The payment of the fines is an admission that they broke the laws they themselves made in office, and there are growing calls for them both to resign. Tuesday's bombshell caps off a woeful week for the government, which has featured a continuous drip-drip of tax-related revelations about Sunak's family finances in recent days.