Boris Johnson is “mortified” at breaking his own lockdown rules, but should still stay on as prime minister, Grant Shapps has insisted.
The transport secretary was left squirming as Sky News presenter Kay Burley repeatedly asked “where is his honour?” after Johnson refused to resign over partygate.
The PM, his wife Carrie and chancellor Rishi Sunak have all been fined for attending a birthday party for Johnson in the Cabinet Room in June 2020.
In a televised statement on Tuesday evening, the prime minister said: “I once again offer a full apology. I accept in all sincerity that people have the right to expect better.”
Asked if he would resign, he added: “I want to be able to get on and deliver the mandate I have.”
In an orchestrated show of unity, cabinet ministers have been tweeting their support for the PM, and Shapps was sent out in a bid to further shore up his position this morning.
He said: “I spoke to the Prime Minister – he is completely mortified by this happening ... it shouldn’t have happened. He has paid the 50 quid fine. That’s the right thing to do.”
The minister added: “He’s human, and sometimes humans make mistakes.”
But pointing out that the Metropolitan Police have so far identified 50 occasions when the law was broken in Downing Street, Burley said: “It’s the first time that a British prime minister has broken the law in the history of the office - more than 300 years since Robert Walpole took office.
“He’s brought the role into disrepute. Where’s his honour?”
Shapps insisted, however, that Johnson’s record should be judged “in the round” and that now would be the wrong time to change leaders.
He told BBC Breakfast: “You can’t go back in time and you have to judge people on everything that they do, including the good things - being the first country in the world to develop a vaccine, to vaccinate everybody, to get the additional booster vaccination out, to get the economy growing faster as we come out of lockdowns faster than any other country in the world.
“All of those things were the prime minister’s achievements, as is the way he is leading the world in the response to the Ukraine situation. I judge people in the round.”