Northern Ireland secretary says Johnson’s leadership is ‘strong’

Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis has defended the prime minister in this morning’s broadcast round.

When asked if the prime minister was “sorry at all” on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Lewis responded: “We’re asking whether his apology is sincere or not.”

However he argued that the apology was “very, very sincere”, adding:  “I think it is important that we get the details of what happened, that’s what this investigation will deliver. It’s also giving space, quite rightly, to Sue Gray’s investigation… she is also somebody who needs that space and freedom she has been given.”

When quizzed over  whether a prime minister needed to be informed that they had broken the rules they had created themselves, Mr Lewis argued that voters would be able to “see the facts themselves”.

He went on to defend Mr Johnson’s leadership as “very good” and “strong”.