HUMBLED BORIS: I’M SORRY FOR PARTIES AT NUMBER 10

PM’s Partygate apology... but he defies calls to quit and vows to ‘get on with the job’

BORIS Johnson last night vowed to get on with the job of running the country after apologising for Partygate.

The Prime Minister said he was ‘humbled’ and had ‘learnt a lesson’ after the long-awaited Sue Gray report revealed new details about the scale of partying in Downing Street during lockdown restrictions.

But he rejected calls to resign and insisted he intends to get on with leading the UK through the Ukraine conflict and the cost of living crisis.

The Gray report into parties during the pandemic included revelations that officials drank so much they were sick, sang karaoke and left wine stains on the walls.

Staff also became involved in altercations and abused security workers and cleaners at a time when millions of people were unable to see friends and family.

In one case, officials carried on

drinking in No 10 until the early hours of the morning on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral, with the last departure at 4.20am.

In a statement to MPs in the Commons yesterday, Mr Johnson said he takes ‘full responsibility’ for the scandal but sought to play down his personal involvement in the gatherings or knowledge of some of the events detailed in the report by the senior official. The row came as:

■ Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said the Prime Minister should remain in post while the Ukraine conflict continues but should quit when the crisis is over;

■ The PM revealed he had apologised in person to No10 cleaners and security staff after Miss Gray’s report found officials had treated them with an ‘unacceptable lack of respect’;

■ Miss Gray blamed ‘failures of leadership and judgment in No 10 and the Cabinet Office’ for allowing rule-breaking to take hold;

■ The PM denied reports he had asked Miss Gray to drop the report;

■ Miss Gray found no evidence to substantiate a claim by Dominic Cummings that he had tried to prevent a notorious ‘Bring Your Own Booze’ party in the No 10 garden;

■ Mr Johnson will now face a Commons committee investigation into whether he misled parliament;

■ The Prime Minister hit back at Sir Keir Starmer, calling him ‘Sir Beer Korma’ for not having resigned over his own lockdown drinking;

■ Ministers will seek to move on from the row by unveiling £10billion of spending today to help families deal with the cost of living crisis, to be funded by a new energy windfall tax.

Mr Johnson later told a Downing Street press conference: ‘Of course I understand why people are indignant and why people have been angry at what took place.

‘All I can say is that I really think that given everything that is going on right now, it is my job to get on and serve the people of this country, not just to get us through the biggest war in Europe for 70 years but a huge spike in the cost of living and to deliver our manifesto commitments, on which I was elected with a large majority.’

The inquiry’s findings include that Mr Johnson joined five advisers in a ‘food and alcohol’ event in his Downing Street flat on the evening of the announcement of Dominic Cummings’ departure as chief adviser, while former proprietary and ethics chief Helen MacNamara provided a karaoke machine for a Cabinet Office gathering where one individual was sick and there was a ‘minor altercation’ between two others.

Martin Reynolds, a former senior adviser to the Prime Minister, also boasted in a WhatsApp message to a special adviser ‘we seem to have got away with’ the bring-your-own-booze garden party, while Mr Johnson brought the cheese and wine to the garden gathering on May 15, 2020 from his own flat.

Miss Gray condemned the wider culture that had been allowed to develop under Mr Johnson’s leadership.

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said ‘lessons have been learned and changes made’ within No 10.’

The Metropolitan Police has issued 126 fines for rule breaches in No10 and Whitehall, with the Prime Minister receiving a single fixed-penalty notice for his birthday party in the Cabinet Room in June 2020.