Boris Johnson has denied lying to Parliament over allegations of lockdown rule-breaking parties in Downing Street.
Last week the Prime Minister told MPs he believed the get-together in the No 10 garden during the first lockdown in May 2020 was a 'work event'.
But the PM is coming under increasing pressure after his former chief adviser Dominic Cummings claimed Mr Johnson knew in advance about the party and agreed that it could go ahead.
Asked today if he had lied to Parliament, Mr Johnson said: "No. I want to begin by repeating my apologies to everybody for the misjudgements that I’ve made, that we may have made in No 10 and beyond, whether in Downing Street or throughout the pandemic."
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Speaking during a visit to a hospital in north London, his first public appearance since last week, Mr Johnson insisted he was not warned in advance that a drinks party in Downing Street in May 2020 was against Covid rules.
He added: "Nobody told me that what we were doing was against the rules, that the event in question was something that … was not a work event, and as I said in the House of Commons when I went out into that garden I thought that I was attending a work event.
"What I remember is going out into that garden for a short time and for 25 minutes thanking staff who’d worked on Covid, who were continuing to work on Covid, and then going back to office.
"If I had my time again, I would not have allowed things to develop in that way."
In a post on his Substack page, Mr Cummings said he raised his concerns about the event in the Number 10 garden in May 2020 directly with the PM and would 'swear under oath this is what happened'.
Writing on Twitter Mr Cummings said: "PM was told about the invite, he knew it was a drinks party, he lied to parliament."
It comes after it emerged that Mr Johnson's principal private secretary Martin Reynolds emailed officials with an invite to the event on 20 May, suggesting attendees 'BYOB' (bring your own bottle, or booze).
Lying to Parliament has traditionally been a resignation offence for Government ministers.
