Being fined £60 for failure to pay your congestion charge is bad enough under normal circumstances but far more embarrassing if your name happens to be Boris Johnson, and your job is London mayor.

Perhaps he can be forgiven on this one occasion though. Boris was so excited about driving into London to light the Chanucah candles on December 22 that he clean forgot to fork out the money .

He explained what happened on Vanessa Feltz’s Radio London show. “Speaking as a victim of this wretched system, the other day I drove in to light the Chanucah thing, the Chanucah menorah and I got done by my own system.”

Still, at least it does mean a little more Chanucah gelt in the pot for public transport.