Boris Johnson calls new lockdown rule-breaking claims 'load of nonsense'

Boris Johnson has insisted that there is nothing in his diary entries that shows further rule-breaking during the Covid pandemic.

He was referred to police last week following a review of his official diary as part of the Covid inquiry.

The former PM was approached by Sky News before catching a flight in Washington - and said any new claims of rule-breaking were "absolute nonsense".

He said the diary entries were "completely innocent".

He added that the diaries, from his time in Downing Street, "merely record entries in my day".

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The short interview is Mr Johnson's first public comment on the latest development and he said: "This whole thing is a load of nonsense from beginning to end."

Mr Johnson, who is currently being investigated by the privileges committee over whether he lied to parliament over his repeated Partygate denials, questioned why the Cabinet Office had handed over entries from his diary to police without first querying them with him.

"I think it's ridiculous that elements in my diary should be cherry-picked and handed over to the police [and] to the Privileges Committee without even anybody having the basic common sense to ask me what these entries referred to."

The Times, which first broke the story about Mr Johnson's diaries, said the entries revealed visits by Mr Johnson's friends to Chequers - the PM's country estate - and events in Downing Street during the pandemic.

Bur Mr Johnson told Sky: "There are tens of thousands of entries in the prime ministerial diary - none of them constitute a breach of the rules during Covid."

Mr Johnson, who resigned as prime minister last July and has already been fined by the Metropolitan Police for breaking lockdown rules, previously said he believes he is the victim of a "politically motivated stitch-up" following his police referral on Wednesday.