Boris Johnson has said he regrets issuing a blanket apology for the partygate scandal, suggesting the inquiry was a “bit of a put-up job” and that he had nothing personally to say sorry for.
The former prime minister insisted he had not broken the rules and said it was “absurd” he was fined for “standing in my office for a few minutes on my birthday”.
Mr Johnson quit Downing Street in summer 2022 after the partygate and Chris Pincher scandals.
Speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival to promote his new book, Unleashed, he acknowledged his mistakes in those scandals and one involving Owen Paterson.
“I do put my hands up to the failures you identify. I do think I mishandled all three of those things,” he said.
“I tried to explain as clearly as I can what I got wrong. Of course, I regret and I apologised for it.
“Because I am now in the happy position of being able to say exactly what I think, what I honestly think is that in my own personal behaviour I don’t think I did anything wrong.
“I certainly don’t think I broke the rules, and I can give you a long and boring disposition on why it was absurd I was fined for standing in my office for a few minutes on my birthday.
“When I look at the chief inquisitor into partygate (Sue Gray) now, I have to say a slow bundling frown creases my brow.
“She’s gone now but she was chief of staff to the leader of the Labour Party.
“I really don’t think I did anything wrong personally but what I should have done is help protect everybody else who was working with me and for me better.
“One way I should have done that is have a general announcement circulated around saying we are making these rules, people will be watching, not only have you got to obey them but be seen to obey them.
“The second thing I shouldn’t have done is issued a general, grovelling blanket apology for everything at the outset.
“Because what that meant was the public took it to mean I had accepted in advance all the allegations that were subsequently made, even though actually many of them were simply not true.
“If you say am I at least partly defined over that issue then I am afraid the tragic answer is yes.
“Do I understand people’s anger? Yes. Do I think that it’s at least a bit of a put-up job? Yes, I do.”
In a wide-ranging interview Mr Johnson defended his record in office and said Brexit had brought the country freedom to make its own laws, allowed it to get ahead in delivering the Covid-19 vaccines and enabled the UK to assist Ukraine after the Russia invasion more quickly.
Among the audience at the Prestbury Park venue were Mr Johnson’s wife Carrie and sister Rachel.
He also defended the Vote Leave claim made during the Brexit referendum that the UK sent £350 million a week to the EU, which was plastered across the side of a campaign bus.
“It was the bus of truth. The bus, the £350 million, and the whole point about that conversation was that what we said was 100% accurate. Yes, it was the gross figure,” he said.
“So as far as it was accurate, it was probably an understatement of the gross figure. By 2020 we were going up well over £400 million a week.
“I think that’s a significant sign and people were right to ask what they were getting for it.
“It was a tiny fraction of the argument because what we were also saying was that it was time to take that control of our laws, our legal system and our regulatory system.”
He added: “It is absolutely incontrovertible that when it came to the biggest problem our country had faced, the worst pandemic for a century, coming out of the EU was a material advantage to the people of this country in protecting them against a foul and lethal disease.
“It really, really helped that we were able to vaccinate people faster than our European friends and partners and we were able to do that because we were outside the European Medicines Agency.
“Brexit, in my view, saved lives and people didn’t expect that but it happens to be true.
“It sticks in people’s craw still and they try to shut me up, they try to expel me from office, but it’s true.”
Mr Johnson also defended his record on immigration as prime minister after being criticised for introducing a more liberal policy after the pandemic to meet demand in the economy.
“I just remind everybody that when I was running the Conservative Party, the Reform Party was on about 0% in the polls,” he said.
“I have no doubt that I would have been able to keep us all bubble-gummed together and keep us moving forward without getting hysterical about what I said was an overcompensation during that one year but for particular post-Covid reasons.”
