Boris Johnson has made his first public appearance in days in a painful interview where he claimed "nobody told me" a lockdown drinks do at Downing Street was against the rules.
The under-fire Prime Minister has been lying low since cancelling a planned visit on Thursday after a relative tested positive for Covid.
But after seven days of daily tests, Mr Johnson was free to go about his business - and face the music over the latest allegations about Covid rule-breaking bashes in No 10.
Since Thursday, the PM has been rocked by reports of two boozy leaving dos in Downing Street on the eve of Prince Phillip's funeral in April last year.
Downing Street apologised to the Queen over the alcohol-fuelled events, which saw aides sent to a Coop with a suitcase to buy wine and the PM's son's swing broken by a guest.
The next day the Queen sat alone at a service to honour the life of her husband of 73 years.
And ex-aide Dominic Cummings poured fuel on the fire when he insisted the PM had lied about whether he had been warned about a BYOB drinks in the Downing Street garden on May 20 2020.
Mr Johnson admitted to MPs he attended the event for 25 minutes but claimed he thought it was a work event.
The PM faced a barrage of questions over the "partygate" revelations on a visit to a hospital in north London today.
Here are the signs he is on the ropes.
The PM appeared visibly shaken
Boris Johnson normally puts on a show of finding most things amusing - and usually has a quick quip or wordy metaphor to try to bamboozle his interviewers.
Not today. The PM looked drawn and tired as he faced a barrage of questions about fresh party revelations and whether he had misled Parliament last week about a lockdown bash in the Downing Street garden in May 2020.
Gone was his normally cheery demeanour, instead Mr Johnson appeared beset by the pressures mounting on him from all sides.
When asked about the leaving parties held the night before the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral, he appeared visibly distressed.
The Prime Minister audibly breathed heavily behind his mask as he said he "deeply and bitterly" regretted what had happened and revealed for the first time that he had personally apologised to the Queen.
Until this point it was only known that Downing Street had apologised to Buckingham Palace.
He tried to pass the buck onto others
The PM's central defence was that "nobody told me" that a BYOB drinks party in the Downing Street garden in May 2020 was against the rules.
Former aide Dominic Cummings has claimed that Mr Johnson was warned about the event in advance but waved these concerns aside.
This would be absolutely damning if proven, as it would mean Mr Johnson lied to Parliament when he claimed he thought the boozy bash was a work event.
Ministers who mislead Parliament are normally expected to resign under the ministerial code.
Asked if he had lied to Parliament over the parties, Mr Johnson said: "No. I want to begin by repeating my apologies to everybody for the misjudgments that I've made, that we may have made in No 10 and beyond, whether in Downing Street or throughout the pandemic.
"Nobody told me that what we were doing was against the rules, that the event in question was something that ... was not a work event, and as I said in the House of Commons when I went out into that garden I thought that I was attending a work event.
The PM refused to rule out resigning
Mr Johnson repeatedly declined to say whether he would quit after being grilled about his future.
Instead he pleaded with people to wait for the result of the Sue Gray probe into Downing Street parties.
Asked if he would resign if he misled Parliament, he said: "We'll have to see what she says. And I think that she should be given the space to get on and conclude her inquiry.
"And I would urge everybody who has knowledge of this and... memories of this, to tell her what they know."
The interview ran for 16 minutes
The exchange was only meant to be a pool clip, where one designated reporter asks questions on behalf of the rest of other journalists.
Usually these clips are quite short but today's ran to 16 long minutes.
The fact that neither Boris Johnson nor No 10 brought it to an end suggested they felt it would look worse to do so than have the PM put on the spot.
