British Prime Minister; Boris Johnson is fighting so hard to keep his job. He has rejected opposition calls to resign for attending lockdown parties but accepted that a rule that ministers should lose their jobs if they had knowingly misled parliament applied to him.

Mr Johnson, who won the biggest Conservative majority in more than 30 years, is braced for the publication of an official investigation into claims that there were multiple boozy Downing Street parties during lockdowns. He told parliament no rules were broken.

It was not immediately clear when the results of that investigation by Cabinet Office official Sue Gray would be published, especially as police have opened their own investigation.

Asked by the opposition Labour Party; SirKeir Starmer leader if the ministerial code, which says that ministers who had knowingly misled parliament should offer to resign, applied to him Johnson said: “Of course.”

“If he’d misled parliament, he must resign,” Sir Keir told parliament. “Will you now resign?”

“No,” Mr Johnson replied.

He said he could not speak about investigations into the alleged parties.

Mr Johnson said his government was focused on driving economic growth and leading the Western response to the Ukraine crisis.

The Prime Minister has given a variety of explanations about the parties: first, he said no rules had been broken but then he apologised to the British people for the apparent hypocrisy of such gatherings.

He has denied an allegation he was warned that a “bring your own booze” lockdown gathering on 20 May 2020, which he says he thought was a work event, was inappropriate.

ITV reported on Monday that Mr Johnson and his now-wife Carrie had attended a surprise party of up to 30 people for his birthday in the Cabinet Room at Downing Street in June 2020, when indoor gatherings were banned.

British police on Tuesday said they had opened their own investigation into lockdown events at Downing Street, upping the pressure on Johnson.

Some of his own colleagues have already demanded he resign but to trigger a leadership challenge, 54 of the 359 Conservative MPs in parliament must write letters of no confidence to the chairman of the party’s 1922 Committee.