BORIS Johnson has been challenged over his attitude towards lockdown-busting parties and fines issued by the Met by a group of MPs.

The Prime Minister was giving evidence to the parliamentary Liaison Committee, when SNP MP Pete Wishart asked him about the latest tranche of fines issued by the force.

It was announced yesterday that the Met would be handing out 20 fines in relation to their investigation into gatherings during lockdown held across Whitehall and in No.10.

Mr Wishart asked if Mr Johnson agreed that should he be personally fined he was "toast".

He said: "We're not expecting you to give a running commentary but obviously...You're pretty much toast aren't you? A Prime Minister couldn't possibly survive having been found [guilty] of criminality, of the very rules that Prime Minister set." 

Mr Johnson said he was not going to provide details of the investigation while it was still ongoing, and stuck to this line when asked any questions about the saga.

The SNP MP replied: "First, you said there was no rule breaking. Then you claimed you’re aware of any of these parties. Then you said it was a work meeting.

“Then you said you were outraged by them and then you said you were aware of these events, but they weren’t against the rules.

"Finally, you admitted you were at these events, but you were so ignorant of the rules you didn’t realise you were breaking them.

“You do understand why the public has such difficulty with all this?”

The Prime Minister responded: "I don’t in any way wish to minimise the importance of the issue and your point but I just want to return to what I have said and that is: that would come under the category of running commentary, in my view." 

Mr Wishart then attacked the PM over a gathering of Tory MPs he organised last night, at the Park Plaza hotel in London.

The Perth and North Perthshire MP said: "You thought you’d get away with it and that no one would be interested.

"The optics last night of parading your MPs in front of the Covid bereaved to go and party on the day you received fixed penalty notices was surely dreadful optics?" 

Mr Johnson was asked again about if he would resign if he had broken the ministerial code, but said: "I think you’re just going to have to hold your horses and wait until the conclusion of the investigation when there will be a lot more clarity and I will be back before this committee and, I have no doubt, before the body of the House of Commons."