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DUP MP Sammy Wilson rails against 'Stasi state' after being caught on train without a face mask

Sammy Wilson was pictured on a train without a mask -  Getty Images Europe/Matt Cardy
Sammy Wilson was pictured on a train without a mask - Getty Images Europe/Matt Cardy
Coronavirus Article Bar with counter
Coronavirus Article Bar with counter

An MP who was photographed without a mask on the London Underground has complained that the public snooping on each other feels “like East Germany under the Stasi”.

Sammy Wilson, the DUP MP for East Antrim, was pictured without a face covering on a Tube train on Thursday morning.

Twitter users accused Mr Wilson of breaking Government guidelines just days after fines for travelling on the Underground without a mask increased to £200.

But the MP would offer no excuse for his actions and said it was "sad that we have now become like East Germany under the Stasi where members of the public think it is acceptable to act as snoops".

"Whoever took the picture didn't approach me or say anything to me which I suppose would have been the proper way to behave,” he added.

"I wore a mask before getting on the train, while on the train, in the airport and on the plane,” he told the Belfast Telegraph.

"I took a call and you can't talk through a mask as you are muffled, so I took it off but put it back on again soon after."

Jimmy Spratt, Mr Wilson’s former DUP colleague in the Northern Ireland Assembly, said he needed to “grow up and wise up and do the right thing”.

“Wear your mask Sammy and protect others,” he tweeted.

Jim Wells, a former DUP health minister, defended Mr Wilson’s “honest mistake".

"Are all public representatives going to have to live in a cave for the next three or four months in case we happen to make a mistake, which we admit when we do so?" he said.

The news came after Danny Kruger, a Tory MP, was caught without a mask in a photo online.

He said he “quite simply forgot” to wear one on an hour-long journey from Hungerford to London.