Boris Johnson’s government has been plunged into a fresh political crisis after it was confirmed on Tuesday that both the Prime Minister and the chancellor Rishi Sunak, who does not even drink, have received £50 fixed penalty notices from Scotland Yard over partygate.

Boris’s wife, Carrie, is also being fined.

Predictably, there were calls for Britain’s two most senior politicians to resign from the Labour and Lib Dem leaders, Keir Starmer and Ed Davey, respectively, but a group calling itself “Tories Out”, also weighed in: “If Pakistan can do it. The Govt here can do it. Johnson and Sunak out.”

Boris will want to stick to his plan to fly to India on April 22 for a crucial and long delayed meeting with Narendra Modi to discuss India’s stance over the Ukraine war and also a bilateral Free Trade Agreement.

Whether disgruntled Tory MPs will want a leadership contest when Boris has emerged as the leading anti-Putin figure in Europe remains to be seen. His grasp on power was precarious earlier this year but the Ukraine war appeared to have bought him a fresh lease of life.

So far the Metropolitan Police has issued 50 fines but without identifying any of the recipients.

But a spokesman for 10 Downing Street, issued a mea culpa: “The Prime Minister and chancellor of the exchequer have today received notification that the Metropolitan Police intend to issue them with fixed penalty notices. We have no further details, but we will update you again when we do.”

Many will consider the fine imposed on Sunak, under pressure over his tax arrangements, is unfair. He only popped in briefly when Carrie organised a cake to celebrate a 56th birthday party for her husband in the summer of 2020. Rather more questionably, she also held a “victory party” when Dominic Cummings, who was previously Boris’s top aide, was forced out of Downing Street on November 13, 2020, after falling out with the Prime Minister. He has since been doing his best to see Boris is ousted from power.

The spokeswoman for the Prime Minister’s wife said: “In the interests of transparency, Mrs Johnson can confirm she has been notified that she will receive a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN). She has not yet received any further details about the nature of the FPN.”

The fines are relatively trivial but their consequences could bring down Boris. The only people who can get rid of the Prime Minister are backbench Tory MPs.

The chances are Johnson may survive – for a while, anyway. The pressure could mount again if the Tories do very badly in the local government elections in May. But he has a new best friend in Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Calling on Johnson to resign, Starmer said during a local government campaign visit to Glasgow: “I don’t think he’s any longer got the authority to govern. These fines just underscore how wrong the prime minister was to pretend to the country – and hope that it would never be found out – that nothing had gone on in his home or in his workplace that broke the law when we now know there was widespread criminality.”

Davey said: “The police have now completely shredded Johnson’s claims that no laws were broken. He cannot be trusted and cannot continue as prime minister. No other leader in any other organisation would be allowed to continue after law-breaking on this scale. If Boris Johnson won’t resign, Conservative MPs must show him the door.”

But will they?

Calling on the prime minister to resign, Matt Fowler, co-founder of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, said: “There you have it – it’s now indisputable that whilst bereaved families were unable to be at their loved ones’ sides in their last moments, or stood at their funerals alone, the people responsible for protecting us in Downing St were partying and rule breaking en masse. It’s a reality that is unbelievably painful for bereaved families like mine to face as we try and move forward with our lives.

“It’s plain as day that there was a culture of boozing and rule breaching at the highest level of Government, whilst the British public was making unimaginable sacrifices to protect their loved ones and communities.”