Boris Johnson didn’t lie about partygate, he was just given 'wrong information', Jacob Rees-Mogg claims

Jacob Rees-Mogg defended the Prime Minister as the first fines were announced

Boris Johnson didn’t realise he was lying about partygate and was just given “wrong information”, Jacob Rees-Mogg has claimed.

The minister told LBC the Prime Minister had not deliberately misled MPs when he said all guidance had been followed.

In December 2021, Mr Johnson told the house that "all guidance was followed completely in No 10".

Since then fines have been sent to people who attended a Downing Street party on the eve of Prince Philip's funeral, with the event being one of 12 police are looking at.

Helen MacNamara, the former deputy cabinet secretary, was reported to be among those to receive a fixed-penalty notice (FPN) from Scotland Yard as part of its investigation into alleged lockdown-breaching parties.

The Prime Minister is believed to have attended at least three of the gatherings under investigation.

Asked if the prime minister had misled Parliament, Mr Rees-Mogg told a caller on LBC: "The fact that the prime minister was given wrong information doesn't mean he misled people.

"The prime minister said he was told the rules were followed but that turns out not to be correct.

"If the prime minister is told information that is incorrect and passes that information on he has made no deliberate attempt to mislead anybody."

Mr Rees-Mogg also defended his dismissal of the partygate row as “fluff” in the context of the war in Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis.

He said some of the coronavirus restrictions imposed during lockdown were “inhuman”.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: "If the PM wants to come to Parliament and tell us that he was repeatedly lied to by his own adviser then let him do that.

"The idea that he had no idea what was going on in his home and his office and only gave answers because he was lied to by his officials is a case he needs to make... I don't think he can."

It comes as his cabinet colleagues claimed the “world has moved on” from the partygate saga.

Welsh Secretary Simon Hart said his constituents were not calling for resignations over parties held in No 10 and across Whitehall during Covid restrictions.

He said: “I have 65,000 constituents in west Wales, where I represent, and they are not shy in coming forward and expressing a view about this and a number of other subjects.

“And throughout all of this saga of the Downing Street parties they have said one thing very clearly, and in a vast majority they say they want contrition and they want an apology, but they don’t want a resignation.

“Looking at how this interview started and what we’re seeing in Ukraine, that helps contextualise all of this in my head.

“And I think we’re now dealing with something of such seriousness and such horror that what went on maybe two years ago clearly needs to be dealt with, and should be – it’s a source of irritation for a lot of people still – but I’m glad that this thing is now coming to a conclusion.”

Despite the fines being issued, Downing Street still declined to say whether Mr Johnson believes coronavirus laws were broken.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “The Prime Minister wants to comment at the conclusion of the process and not at the middle of it.”