Boris Johnson said he was confident he had enough backing to survive as Prime Minister when asked by reporters during a trip to the North East.
The Prime Minister was in Stockton-on-Tees, Teesside, on Friday where he met fibre cable-laying trainees but he was faced with questions over partygate. When asked whether he was confident he had enough support he said he had already given "exhaustive answers" on the issue.
It comes amid Sue Gray report's revelations that late-night booze-fuelled bashes at Downing Street 'made a mockery' of lockdown rules. Mr Johnson told reporters: "Yes, but I think I gave some pretty vintage and exhaustive answers on all that subject the other day in the House of Commons. Then in a subsequent press conference.
Read more: Downing Street partygoers raved 'until early hours' according to Sue Gray's report
"What I also said was what we want to do is focus on driving jobs, driving investment in this country. What we’re doing today is we’re talking about getting people off welfare and into work, and we can see that."
Mr Johnson also addressed the cost of living crisis and said the Government’s £21 billion emergency support package is a "big bazooka" that should get the country through until energy prices begin to abate.
He said: "What we are doing now is making sure we support people through tough times. It’s a big bazooka. I’m not going to pretend that this is going to fix everything for everybody immediately.
"There is still going to be pressure but it is a very, very substantial commitment by the Government to getting us through what will be still a bumpy time with the increase in energy prices around the world.
"What I think it will also help us to do is to get us through until, I believe, the prices will start to abate and we will be in a much, much stronger position."
Mr Johnson also defended the decision for the Government to temporarily help people with their bills and said: "You’ve got to do stuff that is timely, it’s the right time to do it. It’s targeted at people.
"Three-quarters of the homes that will benefit will be those who are the most vulnerable. Overall, about a third of the households in the UK will benefit from what we’re doing.
"So it’s a temporary thing because, after all, what you want is the natural strength of the economy and people’s wages, people’s employment, to be continuing to power us forward. That will happen. But what you need to do is help people to cope now with a particular spike in energy prices that Ofgem predicted the other day."
He also outlined the difference between Labour’s policy and the Conservatives’ policy on tax and spending and said his party’s policy is "much more generous". Mr Johnson said: "It’s very simple. When it comes to this particular policy, what it does, for instance, is it’s much more generous, this gives £1,200 for eight million households.
"What it also does is the levy is designed so that companies can offset investments that they’re making in new energy supply or in green technology to the tune of 91p in the pound.
"So, what I’ve been saying for months and months, if you listen carefully to my answers, we want to have a solution that protects people, but also protects investments in our economy.
“Because as we come through this, the way to fix the problem of inflation in energy prices is also to have more sustainable energy supply in the UK. That’s why we’re moving to 50 gigawatts of wind, 25 gigawatts of nuclear and all the other investments that we’re making. We need the private companies to do the same."
Read next:
