• Boris Johnson addressed Conservative MPs hours ahead of a vote of confidence Monday afternoon.
  • A source close to the prime minister played down partygate as "the media's favourite obsession".
  • "I'd do it again", Johnson is said to have told MPs who asked him about the Sue Gray report.

A future probe into Boris Johnson's response to partygate were dismissed as an insignificant matter by a senior Conservative source close to the prime minister.

The source spoke on condition of anonymity to speak frankly about comments made by Johnson in a meeting with other Conservative MPs ahead of a vote of confidence Monday evening.

Asked if Johnson had mentioned the looming investigation by MPs on the cross-party Privileges Committee, the source told journalists: "No.

"Even you might find other interesting things to talk about between now and September or whenever this kicks off that matters so much more to your viewers, listeners, and readers, than yet another inquiry into a bunch of events –

"Is there anyone here who hasn't got pissed, in their lives?" the source asked. "Is there anyone here who doesn't like a glass of wine to decompress?"

Gray's report spelled out how at booze-fuelled lockdown-breaching parties – for which 126 fines were handed out by the Metropolitan Police – there was vomiting, damage to a child's swing, and fighting between government officials.

The committee's investigation will examine if Johnson knowingly misled Parliament in comments denying that parties had been held in Downing Street in breach of lockdown rules.

When asked about the conduct described in the Sue Gray partygate report, including having attended leaving parties for Downing Street staff, Johnson told MPs on Monday afternoon: "I'd do it again", a reporter at The Times said.

In a letter to Conservative MPs sent around ahead of the confidence vote, Johnson said it was an opportunity to "put an end to the media's favourite obsession".

Chris Bryant, Labour MP and chair of the Standards Committee, told Insider that Johnson "is utterly shameless."

"That used to be charming, it's now contemptible because it forgets the sacrifices everyone else made," he said.

 

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