Boris Johnson has refused to accept lockdown laws were broken by people in Whitehall and Downing Street, despite twenty fixed penalty notices having been issued.
Appearing before the liaison committee of senior MPs on Wednesday, the prime minister also tried to repeatedly dodge all questions over the partygate scandal.
Asked if he was “toast″ if the police ended up handing him a fine for breaking his own Covid rules, Johnson would not answer.
No.10 has said it would make public any fines issued to the prime minister. But Johnson has avoided answering whether he would resign should he be found to have have broken the law.
Instead, Johnson told MPs he would not give a “running commentary” and the “sensible” time for him to speak about the scandal was once the Metropolitan Police investigation had been completed.
“I think you’re just going to have to hold your horses and wait until the conclusion of the investigation when there will be a lot more clarity,” he said.
The PM’s refusal to accept the law had been broken put him at odds with justice secretary Dominic Raab.
Raab told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it was “clear there were breaches of the law” given fines had been issued. “That is the only thing that can warrant the 20 fixed penalty notices. That must follow.”
Scotland Yard is investigating 12 parties during lockdown in Downing Street and Whitehall, including gatherings attended by the PM.
Keir Starmer, Labour’s leader, said Johnson should resign for misleading the Commons by having previously denied the allegations of wrongdoing at the parties.
Johnson told the committee he had “tried to be as clear as I can about my understanding of events”.