Boris Johnson should stay in No10 even if he is fined over Partygate because “the world has moved on”, a top Cabinet minister claimed today.
Welsh Secretary Simon Hart dismissed suggestions the Prime Minister should resign if he is found to have broken his own lockdown rules.
Other Cabinet ministers have avoided saying whether the PM should quit if he broke the law, insisting it is a hypothetical question.
But Mr Hart said: “The idea that it might be appropriate to have a six-week, self-indulgent leadership contest - frankly, I don’t think that’s very sensible.
“We all make judgements that we’ve had time to reflect on and wish we’d made differently.
“For me personally, I think the world has moved on a considerable distance.”
Lib Dem frontbencher Christine Jardine fumed: “These comments are an insult to every family that suffered in lockdown while Downing Street partied.
“Boris Johnson's Conservatives have got something else coming if they think the public has moved on from this shameful scandal.
“ Boris Johnson broke the rules he asked us all to obey then repeatedly lied about it. Conservative MPs must rediscover their moral compass and get rid of him."
It comes after the government’s former ethics chief Helen MacNamara became the first person to be named for receiving a £50 fine from the Met Police.
The Telegraph revealed she had been at a “raucous” leaving do for No10 aide Hannah Young on 18 June 2020 - during the first lockdown.
A source confirmed to the Mirror that attendees had used a karaoke machine kept in government offices - and a drunken “brawl” broke out in the early hours.
Meanwhile, other party attendees have been fined for a gathering held in No10 on the eve of the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral last year.
Two parties were held on the Friday night in April 2021, with one said to have been so raucous staff broke a swing belonging to Boris Johnson’s son.
Downing Street today said Boris Johnson had still not been fined by police, who are still investigating. ITV ’s Robert Peston reported he will not be interviewed in full by Scotland Yard.
When the Met began investigating Partygate, many Tory MPs told the Mirror they were waiting to see if police issued a fine before calling for the PM’s resignation.
But Welsh Secretary Simon Hart said his constituents were not calling for resignations.
He said "of course" the allegations of partying did not sit comfortably with him, but he dismissed calls that anyone should resign if they were issued with a penalty.
"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," he told Sky News.
"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."
Mr Hart said "the world has moved on a considerable distance" and he told TalkRadio: "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."
The Met is investigating 12 events, including as many as six that Mr Johnson is said to have attended, and has sent out more than 100 questionnaires.
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."
It comes as Brexit opportunities minister Jacob Rees-Mogg suggested Boris Johnson had been handed incorrect information about the gatherings before he told MPs no rules had been broken.
"The Prime Minister said that he was told the rules were followed, but that turns out not to be correct and we know that fines have now been issued, but the Prime Minister can only work on the information he is given," he told LBC.
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".
"I think those words in the context of what's going on in Ukraine are completely reasonable," he said.
"I don't think the issue of what may or may not have happened in Downing Street and what we are now finding out is fundamental.
"What I think is fundamental is that we look in the ( Covid-19 ) inquiry at how the rules were devised and the effect that they had, because I think some of those rules were inhuman."
But Downing Street did not back that view.
The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "I think at all times the Government took action to save both lives and livelihoods and that was always a balanced judgment that sought to be informed by the latest evidence we had.
"We have established an inquiry to take a proper view and learn lessons about what happened and there will be more to say then. But certainly at all times the Government sought to act in the best interests of the United Kingdom."
Mr Rees-Mogg acknowledged that people were "undeniably cross" but insisted that Mr Johnson had not misled Parliament about the situation.
Conservative MP Steve Brine on Sunday night called for transparency about who has been issued with fines.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour on Sunday, the MP for Winchester said: "They should just be honest about who's been tipped off with what and put it all out there and say, you know what, we got this wrong, or this person's got this fine, because these guys in the press, they won't focus on the issues of the local election, they'll scratch around and try and dig all this stuff up again."
