PM rejects Cummings’ claims he misled parliament over lockdown parties

The prime minister has rejected claims he lied to Parliament over alleged lockdown-breaching gatherings at No 10.”Nobody told me that what we were doing was against the rules” he insisted this afternoon.

Mr Johnson reiterated his apologies to the Buckingham Palace and the nation this afternoon during a visit to Finchley Memorial Hospital in London, however he rejected claims made by-ex-aide Dominic Cummings yesterday evening that he had misled MPs.

When quizzed over whether he would resign if it was officially concluded that he misled Parliament, the prime minister said: “Well let’s see what the report says. It would be quite wrong of me to prejudge what the inquiry will say or do.”

“As I said in the House of Commons, when I went out into that garden I thought I was attending a work event,” he explained to reporters, going on: “I think it’s very important that we see what the inquiry has to say. I will be coming back to the House of Commons as soon as it’s reported, as soon as I can after it and I’ll be telling people more.

“I can’t believe that we would have gone ahead with an event that people were saying was against the rules or not asking people to do. Nobody warned me that it was against the rules… I would remember that,” he went on.

Earlier today Chancellor Rishi Sunak made his first public comments on the sprially”partygate” scandal, stressing that he “of course” trusted that the prime minister was unaware of any illicit gatherings at Downing Street.