Tory Edwina Currie today boasted “I don’t care, I really don’t care” that Boris Johnson broke the law and lied because the Tories will win elections anyway.
The former MP, who last year lost her race to become a councillor to Labour, predicted the Conservatives will triumph at the local elections on May 5.
Her public view echoes what many Tory supporters of Boris Johnson are saying privately - that they believe Partygate will blow over and they’ll get away with it at the ballot box.
Tory letters of no confidence appeared to be receding for now with the 54-letter threshold to trigger a vote unlikely to event. This could change when the Ukraine war recedes, more fines are issued by police, or ethics chief Sue Gray issues a new report.
That is despite Boris Johnson yesterday admitting he was the first ever Prime Minister to be fined for breaking the law - one he set and ordered Brits to follow.
He, his wife and Chancellor all paid £50 fixed penalty notices issued by Scotland Yard for celebrating the PM’s birthday while indoor gatherings were banned.
It also comes after another Tory Boris Johnson ally, Michael Fabricant, defended the PM by saying there were no pole dancers and claiming NHS staff drank at work too.
The PM has denied deliberately lying, despite repeatedly telling MPs no rules were broken and then seeking to blame staff.
Yet Ms Currie, who had an affair with future PM John Major and was later an MP during the 90s sleaze that brought down his government, told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I don’t care, I really don’t care.
“What matters for me and what matters for millions of people in this country is the results we get from our politicians. The results we get from Boris are pretty good.”
She added: “Last week we had a by-election here in the High Peak and we took a seat from Labour which means we’ve taken control of the borough from Labour.
“Everybody had an opportunity to express their viewpoint. And what happened was we won the seat, we actually won it, that’s what’s happening.”
GMB host Richard Madeley said it was extraordinary she didn’t care whether “a serving prime minister knowingly misled Parliament - what does that say about where we are today and our political climate?”
Mirror Associate Editor Kevin Maguire added: “It’s debased, collapsed standards where truth, honesty and principle don’t matter any more and I think that’s a terrible moment in British politics.”
It came as Boris Johnson defender Grant Shapps claimed the PM was “completely mortified” by his own illegal birthday party and insisted the PM didn't knowingly lie.
The Cabinet minister protested: “He’s human and humans err and sometimes they make mistakes and that’s what happened here."
The Transport Secretary said what happened was “deeply upsetting”, pointing out he couldn’t see his father in hospital for months during lockdown.
He was confronted by Sky News host Kay Burley who repeatedly questioned whether Boris Johnson was an “honourable man”.
And he was grilled by a BBC presented who quoted the testimony of bereaved families who think the PM must resign - leaving him briefly speechless.
Mr Shapps told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “He was frankly embarrassed, he appreciates what happened was wrong and indefensible… he’s mortified.”
He added: “He said to me it was stupid, it was indefensible, he’s mortified he didn’t see it at the time.”
Yet he claimed the Tory leader should not resign because he’s got “the big calls right”.
“By the same logic, anybody who broke a lockdown law in their job would go,” he added - despite a court last year hearing a police officer who walked in Snowdonia in lockdown would lose his job.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions, said the police's decision marked the "first time in the history of our country that a prime minister has been found to be in breach of the law".
Speaking in Preston, he accused Mr Johnson of "repeatedly" lying about what happened behind the famous black door of No 10.
Sir Keir also argued that the Tory leader and Mr Sunak had "dishonoured" the sacrifices made by Britons who did follow the rules during the pandemic.
"The British public made the most unimaginable, heart-wrenching sacrifices, and many were overcome by guilt," he said.
"But the guilty men are the Prime Minister and the Chancellor.
"Britain deserves better, they have to go."
Labour has joined the chorus of demands for the Commons to be recalled from its two-week Easter break and allow Mr Johnson to "tender his resignation" in person to MPs.
