Former UK PM Boris Johnson has accused anyone who suspects he deliberately covered up lockdown parties in No 10 of being “out of their mind”.
Boris said the claim was “strictly for the birds”, despite being under investigation for allegedly lying to Parliament over lockdown breaches.
In an interview with Tory MP Nadine Dorries, who Mr Johnson is believed to have recommended for a peerage, he said he thought their mid-pandemic gatherings were “within the rules”.
He insisted on being “respectful” to the cross-party Commons Privileges Committee, which is conducting the partygate inquiry.
“But I’ll just repeat what I’ve said before, and I hope it’s obvious to everybody, that anybody who thinks I was knowingly going to parties that were breaking lockdown rules in No 10, or then knowingly covering up parties that were illicit that other people were going to, that’s all strictly for the birds,” he added.
“And if anybody thinks like that, they’re out of their mind.”
“We all thought what we were doing – or certainly, I thought what we were doing – was within the rules. And what we certainly thought was that we were working blindingly hard on some massive priorities for the country,” he added.