Remorseless Boris Johnson has claimed anyone who believes he knowingly covered up illegal parties at No10 is "out of their mind".
The shamed former Prime Minister, who was forced to quit after a rebellion by his own MPs, told close ally Nadine Dorries in a TV interview that he thought he was acting within the rules.
Mr Johnson became the first Prime Minister in history to be sanctioned by police while in office after being fined for breaching Covid regulations, and he faces a probe by MPs into whether he misled Parliament.
The millionaire backbencher - whose legal defence is set to cost the taxpayer an estimated £220,000 - is the first guest on Ms Dorries' show on TalkTV, which will screen on Friday.
In a clip released today the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip said: "As you know there’s a Parliamentary Committee looking into some aspects of this and I had better be respectful of them.
"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 No10, and then knowingly covering up parties that were illicit that other people were going to, that’s all strictly for the birds.
"And if anybody thinks like that they’re out of their mind.”
The former PM also doubled down on his claim that Brexit sped up the UK's vaccine rollout - which has been disputed.
He told Ms Dorries: "Thank goodness that era is behind us but one thing people forget - now let’s pray it’s behind us - but one thing people forget, thinking about the vaccine rollout is there we’ve got the, I think the third anniversary of Brexit, coming up, or the third anniversary of the day when we actually came out of the EU.
"You don’t hear it much these days, but it is absolutely the case, that had it not been for our ability to do our own regulation, had it not been for the fact that we’d come out of the European Medicines Agency, the MHRA, the medical health regulation agency, was now totally free to decide how fast to approve the vaccine - we wouldn't have been able to do that vaccine rollout so fast."
Fact checking organisation Full Fact has previously rubbished this claim, saying that the UK always had the right to give temporary approval to an unlicensed medicinal product in crises such as a pandemic.
Ms Dorries, who served as culture secretary between 2021 and last year, is Mr Johnson's most steadfast ally - this month claiming Tories should bring him back 'or die '.
She has also described him as a "political rock star".
She refused to turn on him after he became mired in a number of scandals, and repeatedly claimed he had been stabbed in the back as his party turned on him.
In a bitter attack on current PM Rishi Sunak earlier this year, she said: "With Rishi in No10, we are heading into the long, cold and brutal wasteland of thankless opposition".
As reported by The Mirror at the weekend, Ms Dorries has been slapped down by Westminster’s revolving door watchdog over her forthcoming TV show.
Watchdog chair Lord Pickles was left fuming after she failed to seek advice from his body before taking the job.
All former ministers are required to ask the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) before taking a new job within two years of leaving government.
By failing to do so, Ms Dorries apparently broke the ministerial code.
In a letter to Ms Dorries on Friday night, Lord Pickles wrote: “The government's Business Appointment Rules that an application is required for all outside roles.
“As such, failing to seek and await advice are clear before the role was announced or taken up in this case is a breach of the government’s Rules and the requirements set out in the ministerial code.”
He added that her rule-breaking would be reported to the Cabinet Office.
Watch Friday Night with Nadine on TalkTV at 8pm, February 3. Available on Sky 522, Sky Glass 508, Virgin Media 606, Freeview 237 and Freesat 217 as well as on DAB, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Samsung TV Plus, YouTube, the Talk.TV website and TalkTV iOS and Android apps.
