NORTHWICH MP Mike Amesbury has hit out at the Prime Minister over ‘partygate’, branding him ‘guilty as charged’ and accusing him of misleading Parliament.

Last week  Mr Johnson become the first sitting prime minister to be sanctioned for breaking the law when he was fined by the Metropolitan Police, alongside wife Carrie and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, over a birthday party for the PM at No 10 in June 2020.

Such gatherings were illegal at the time as the country was under strict lockdown rules.

Boris Johnson addressed members in the Commons yesterday (Tuesday) following Parliament’s Easter recess. He said he repeated his ‘wholehearted apology’ to the House, and said he had acknowledged the ‘hurt and anger’ caused, but said he was unaware at the time that he was in breach of any regulations.

The Prime Minister received a fierce backlash from the opposition benches, with Conservative MP Mark Harper calling on him to quit over his "indefensible" actions.

Addressing Mr Johnson directly, Mr Amesbury, Labour MP for Weaver Vale, said: “The Prime Minister has broken the law—guilty as charged—that many people up and down our shores abided by.

"They never had the opportunity to say goodbye to loved ones. The Prime Minister also misled the House over and over again and misled the public over and over again.

"Does he believe in the ministerial code? Is it worth the paper it is written on?”

To which the Prime Minister replied: “Let me repeat my apologies for what I got wrong and what went wrong in Downing Street and also my explanation for why I have spoken as I have in this House.”

Asked by Tory MP Peter Bone if he had deliberately misled MPs in his previous statements, the Prime Minister said: "No."

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle approved a vote called by Labour on whether Mr Johnson lied to MPs with his earlier denials. Mr Johnson is expected to be on a Government visit to India when the vote takes place on Thursday. Knowingly misleading Parliament is a resigning offence under government rules.

But the vote is unlikely to be carried, due to the size of the Government majority and most Conservative MPs standing by the PM.