Boris Johnson has said the partygate scandal is “totally miserable” but it would be irresponsible for him to resign.
In an interview with Mumsnet on Wednesday, the prime minister said he would not “abandon” his job.
It come as Tory MPs inch closer to forcing a no confidence vote in his leadership.
Johnson could be forced from office as soon as next week, if 54 MPs submit letters of no confidence and over half of them vote to remove him as leader.
The interview, which took place in Downing Street, began with Johnson being asked: “Why we should you believe anything you say when it has been proven you are a habitual liar?”
Defending his actions during lockdown breaking gatherings in No.10, Johnson said: “We had to keep morale high.
“Everybody was working blindingly hard. They were all under the rules meant to be here. They had the exemption for work purposes.
“What I thought I was doing was simply doing what is right for a leader in any circumstances and that’s to thank people for their service. If you don’t do that people feel under-appreciated.”
Johnson had been asked why it was ok for him to attend a leaving drinks for departing communications director Lee Cain, while the public were banned from going to funerals.
The prime minister also rejected calls for him to resign. “Why am I still here? I am still here because we’ve got huge pressures economically we’ve got to get on,” he said.
“I just cannot see how it would be responsible right now, given everything that is going on, simply to abandon the project on which I embarked.”
Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tories, is the only person who knows the number of letters that have been sent in.
It is widely expected in Westminster that Brady would wait until parliament returns from the current recess next Monday, after the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations, before revealing whether the 54 threshold had been met.