Former prime minister Boris Johnson has refused to say whether he regrets apologising to the Queen for parties held on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral.
The ex-Tory leader said he should not have apologised for the Partygate scandal, in an interview with ITV.
But he would not be drawn on his conversations with the former monarch.
In his newly memoir, Unleashed, Mr Johnson said he made a “mistake” issuing “pathetic” and “grovelling” apologies over the scandal which, he said, “made it look as though we were far more culpable than we were”.
But in an interview with ITV News, his first major TV sit down since leaving office, he refused to say whether he regrets apologising to the Queen.
Asked directly “did you regret apologising to the Queen?”, he replied: “I don’t discuss my conversations with the Queen.”But he did say he regrets other apologies for the scandal, over lockdown-era gatherings in Downing Street.
He claimed the move had “inadvertently validated the entire corpus” as accusations were also levelled at officials who were “working very hard”.
He added: “What I was trying to say there was, I think that the blanket apology – the sort of apology I issued right at the beginning – I think the trouble with it was that afterwards, all the accusations that then rained down on officials who’d been working very hard in Number 10 and elsewhere were thought to be true.
“And by apologising I had sort of inadvertently validated the entire corpus and it wasn’t fair on those people.”
He also criticised David Cameron’s handling of the aftermath of the Brexit vote, suggesting it was “not normal”for the former prime minister to “evacuate the stage” after the referendum.
He said: “What we expected and what I think, you know, everybody expected was that the Cameron government having called a referendum a ‘yes’, ‘no’ choice for the people – a leave, remain choice for the people – would bring forward a white paper.”
He said he was shocked when Lord Cameron left Number 10 the morning after the vote. He said: “Because every other European leader when their whole referendum decides, you know, once the people have voted, decides what to do and stays in office.
“So, it’s not normal for the prime minister having asked for a referendum vote suddenly to evacuate the stage.”
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