BORIS Johnson refused at least four times to say whether he will resign if he gets slapped with a party fine after sending back his questionnaire to cops last week.
The PM dodged a string of questions in a tense interview yesterday, insisting there is “not a jot” he can say about it.
Last week he sent back his police questionnaire over a string of allegations of lockdown-busting parties at the heart of Downing Street.
But the PM repeatedly told the BBC yesterday after a bombardment of questioning: “I can’t comment about a process that is under way.
“There is literally not a bean I can tell you about that, as much as I would like to.”
He added that he hoped the public “won’t have long” to wait for the investigations to complete, saying “I will be saying a lot more about it in due course.”
Brushing off the police probe – dubbed Operation Hillman – and criticism from his own party members, Mr Johnson said: “I am fortunate to live in a democracy, I am fortunate to be the PM of a free, independent, democratic country where people can take that sort of decision, and where I do face that sort of pressure, that’s a wonderful thing.”
Ally of the PM and Foreign Office minister James Cleverly insisted he shouldn’t throw in the towel even if he does get a £200 fine.
Mr Cleverly told Sky: “I don’t think what the country needs at the moment is a vacuum at the centre of Government when we are dealing with our recovery from Covid, the accumulation of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border, and making sure that the health service is able to deal with the sad, the unfortunate but nevertheless obvious, backlog that’s been created by Covid.
“That’s what the country needs, that’s what I believe the Prime Minister should be doing.”
He went on to tell TimesRadio: “Now is not the appropriate time to thrash around for a new leader.”
