WESTMINSTER’S Easter recess couldn’t come quickly enough for Boris Johnson, a man now desperately playing for time over partygate.

His fine line on the scandal thus far seems to be that being fined by the police for breaking the law doesn’t necessarily mean you have actually broken the law.

On Friday, junior officials in No 10 received emails from Scotland Yard informing them of their £50 fines for breaking the lockdown law by attending parties in Downing St.

None of those fined has been formally identified and nor have the police provided a breakdown of which of the 12 events they probed have led to the first tranche of 20 fixed penalty notices.

Keir Starmer insisted the fines meant “we now know there was widespread criminality” at the heart of the UK Government. The Labour leader is, after all, an ex-Director of Public Prosecutions in England.

All eyes are waiting to see if the PM - believed to have been present at several of the so-called “social gatherings” - gets a fixed penalty notice for breaking the lockdown law he wrote and urged us all to abide by.

His spokesman said: “The facts are not in dispute…mistakes were made. The PM believes it is right to respond once the full facts are known, once the investigation has concluded.”

However, certain “facts” could well be disputed. But whatever happens, fine or no fine, Boris intends to cling on, limpet-like.

On Tuesday night at the plush Park Plaza Hotel across Westminster Bridge – just hours after the first partygate fines went out - the blonde Beatle addressed the people who control his fate: Tory MPs.

Over smoked haddock, chicken and “textures of hazelnut praline,” he cracked jokes, describing the letters of no confidence against him as “elastic,” explaining: “They go in and you can pull them out.”

The PM pledged to turn things round and received a standing ovation from some but not from others. It seems the mood of forgiveness among colleagues has been helped by the easing of anger across local associations.

On Thursday night, Boris was at another bash. He attended with Cabinet colleagues a Tory Party champagne reception for donors at the five-star Claridges hotel in London’s West End, cracking more jokes, telling guests: “I can assure you, you won't be sent any questionnaires for attending this event.”

With the PM’s impeccable timing, the jolly came on the eve of the hike in energy bills for hard-pressed households. While perception is not everything in politics, it’s not far off.

While Johnson has not yet accepted a fine would mean the law was broken, some of his colleagues appear to be rooted more in the real world.

On Wednesday, Dominic Raab, the Deputy PM, who also happens to be the Justice Secretary, asked if the issuing of a fixed penalty notice meant that the law had been broken, replied: “Yes, inevitably, fixed penalty notices[are issued to] those who have breached the regulations.”

On Thursday, Anne Marie Trevelyan, the Trade Secretary, asked the same question, said: “That’s right. They’ve broken the regulations that were set in the Covid Act and police deem that was what they did and, therefore, they’ve been fined accordingly.”

On Friday, Kit Malthouse, England’s Policing Minister, was less definitive, saying the issuing of partygate fines was evidence the police had a “reasonable belief you’ve broken the law,” before adding people still had the right to challenge this.

Before a Commons committee of senior MPs, Boris remained tight-lipped, using the reflex ministerial response to an awkward situation, telling them he was “not going to give a running commentary” on partygate.

But the SNP’s Pete Wishart couldn’t resist the challenge, urging the PM to accept there had been “criminality committed” given Scotland Yard had issued fines to Downing St staff.

When Johnson insisted he would not comment on an “ongoing investigation,” the Perth MP tried again, suggesting he would be “toast” if issued with a fixed penalty notice or had broken the ministerial code.

“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,” declared the PM.

He has his defence already primed and indicated as much to the Liaison Committee grandees, telling them how he had “tried to be as clear as I can about my understanding of events”.

Raab later insisted he did “not think there was an intention to mislead” by Johnson, who had updated MPs “in good faith” and to the best of his knowledge.

Trevelyan let slip what is likely to be the Government’s collective response if its leader were given a fixed penalty notice. “If you or I get a fine,” she explained, “we hopefully pay it and move on from there.”

Moving on is, of course, what Boris desperately wants to do. The attitude is likely to be: a fixed penalty notice is akin to getting a parking ticket and no one would expect someone to resign their job, if they got one of those.

At present, it’s clear Johnson is trying hard to string things out for as long as possible in the hope the threat to his party leadership and premiership is lessened by events unfolding elsewhere.

Yet while most Tory MPs might have decided to stick with their current leader, however politically damaged he is, time may not be on his or their side.

Given the continuing conflict in Ukraine, politically, the May local elections, expected to be bad for the Conservative Party, may not prove to be terminal for Boris’s premiership as once thought.

One Tory colleague told the Huffington Post website: “We’re all on the Johnson rollercoaster and it’s just a question of when we get thrown off.”

Whatever lawyerly wriggling is employed by the occupants of the Downing St bunker, in the court of public opinion – which, come election time, is the only one that counts - Johnson is guilty as charged. A day of reckoning will come. Sooner or later.