Boris Johnson may use a “similar defence” as he did for his birthday party breaking of Covid laws to seek to justify other breaches if fined again by the police, a minister said on Wednesday.
Business minister Paul Scully also signalled the Government would oppose a Labour move to have the Privileges Committee investigate whether the Prime Minister knowingly misled Parliament over the partygate scandal by denying that Covid regulations were flouted in Downing Street.
Mr Johnson repeatedly apologised in the Commons on Tuesday after he was given a £50 fine by Scotland Yard for attending a surprise birthday party in No10 on June 19, 2020.
He insisted he did not believe, certainly, at the time that he was breaking Covid laws.
However, the Met is understood to be investigating the PM for attending up to five other events in Downing Street which may have broken the regulations, including a bring-your-own-booze gathering in the No10 garden.
Pressed on how he would respond to further fines, Mr Scully told Sky News: “We need to look at each of those events in the round, they may be different circumstances, I don’t know.
“There may be a similar view, a similar defence that the Prime Minister is taking in terms of that he believed it was within a workplace situation with the same people that he was literally just heading to a meeting with minutes afterwards, but we will have to see, that’s why it’s difficult to speculate at this point.”
He also appeared to signal the Government would opposed an investigation as proposed by Labour by the Privileges Committee, arguing that MPs would be able to see all the details of the partygate events when senior civil servant Sue Gray publishes her report.
“There is a number of strand of investigation into this whole situation and rather than start another strand at this point in time, I think we need to exhaust those processes,” he said.
