Boris Johnson says he regrets apologising over 'Partygate' lockdown breaking

Separately, a second interview with the former Prime Minister has been cancelled

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he regrets apologising for the so-called Partygate scandal over lockdown-era gatherings in Downing Street.

Mr Johnson, who is promoting his memoirs, used an ITV interview to say that his apology had “inadvertently validated the entire corpus” as accusations were also levelled at officials who were “working very hard”.

He said: “What I was trying to say there was, I think that the blanket apology – the sort of apology I issued right at the beginning – I think the trouble with it was that afterwards, all the accusations that then rained down on officials who’d been working very hard in Number 10 and elsewhere were thought to be true. And by apologising I had sort of inadvertently validated the entire corpus and it wasn’t fair on those people.”

Asked whether he regretted apologising to the late Queen, he said: “I don’t discuss my conversations with the Queen.”

During the same interview, Mr John said he does not think that officials involved in the Partygate scandal “thought they were setting out to break the rules”. He told ITV News: “I really, really don’t think that those officials thought that they were setting out to break the rules… they were working round the clock and they thought they were within the framework.”

Repeatedly pressed on why he regrets apologising for the scandal and whether he understands the scale of public anger, he said: “Of course I understand it and you can’t say that I haven’t been exposed over the last few years to the full force of people’s anger and indignation.”

Elsewhere, Sky News political editor Beth Rigby has has pulled out of an interview with Mr Johnson at the Cheltenham Literature Festival after being told she could not make a recording or transcript of the talk. Mr Johnson had promised to “reveal what really happened during my time as Mayor, Foreign Secretary and PM” during the interview, as he promotes his new memoir titled Unleashed to be published next week.

The cancellation came an interview with the BBC was also dropped earlier in the week after presenter Laura Kuenssberg mistakenly sent him her briefing notes.

In a post on X, Ms Rigby said: “I was looking forward to interviewing Boris Johnson at Cheltenham but regrettably I can’t go ahead with the event because I am not allowed make an audio recording or transcript of the interview.

“As a journalist in conversation with a former PM at a public event, I can only proceed if we do it on the record. I’m sorry to have to pull out.”

Mr Johnson previously tweeted: “I will be UNLEASHED in Cheltenham on 10 October and in Manchester on 12 October to reveal what really happened during my time as Mayor, Foreign Secretary and PM.”