Boris Johnson says he regrets public apology over Partygate

Former prime minister accused of insulting ‘everyone who lost family members’ during the Covid pandemic

Former prime minister Boris Johnson has refused to say whether he regrets apologising to the Queen for a party in Downing Street on the eve of Prince Philip's funeral.

in an interview with ITV, the ex-Tory leader made clear that he regretted his public apology for the Partygate scandal.

But he would not be drawn on his conversations with the former monarch.

The four candidates in the current Tory leadership contest have been urged to condemn his remarks, as he was accused of insulting “everyone who lost family members” during the Covid pandemic.

The four candidates in the Tory leadership race have been urged to condemn Boris Johnson’s Partygate remarks (Reuters)

In his new memoir Unleashed, Mr Johnson said he made the "mistake" of issuing "pathetic" and "grovelling" apologies over the scandal which "made it look as though we were far more culpable than we were".

Last year a damning report by a cross-party group of MPs found he deliberately misled parliament over Partygate.

In a sensational verdict, the Commons privileges committee said they would have recommended a 90-day suspension had Mr Johnson not already quit as an MP. The committee went on to recommend the former PM be stripped of his Commons pass.

In an interview with ITV News, his first major TV examination since leaving office, he said he regretted issuing a “blanket apology” for lockdown-era gatherings in Downing Street.

He claimed the move had “inadvertently validated the entire corpus” as accusations were also levelled at officials who were “working very hard”.

He added: “I think that the blanket apology – the sort of apology I issued right at the beginning – I think the trouble with it was that, afterwards, all the accusations that then rained down on officials who’d been working very hard in No 10 and elsewhere were thought to be true.

“And by apologising I had sort of inadvertently validated the entire corpus and it wasn’t fair on those people.”

The Queen at Prince Philip’s funeral, where only 30 mourners were permitted due to Covid restrictions (AP)

But he refused to say whether he regrets apologising to the Queen.

Asked directly about it, he replied: "I don't discuss my conversations with the Queen."

Mr Johnson also hit out at David Cameron’s handling of the aftermath of the Brexit vote, suggesting it was “not normal” for the former prime minister to “evacuate the stage” after the referendum.

Mr Johnson and Michael Gove, who were part of the Vote Leave campaign, have been accused of unleashing chaos on the UK for campaigning for Brexit without a clear plan about what it would mean.

But Mr Johnson tried to turn the blame on Lord Cameron.

He said: “What we expected and what I think everybody expected was that the Cameron government having called a referendum ... would bring forward a white paper.”

He said he was shocked when Mr Cameron resigned on the morning after the vote. He said: “Because every other European leader when their whole referendum decides, you know, once the people have voted, decides what to do and stays in office.

“So, it’s not normal for the prime minister having asked for a referendum vote suddenly to evacuate the stage.”

In response to the findings of the privileges committee, Mr Johnson called their conclusions “deranged” and “the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination”.

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “Yet again Boris Johnson has shown a complete lack of remorse.“

“His comments are an insult to everyone who lost family members during the pandemic and for those who sacrificed so much. It shows he was never fit to be prime minister.

“The Conservative leadership candidates must condemn these remarks and apologise on behalf of the government they were part of that failed this country so badly during the pandemic.”