Chris Grayling has reappeared to rebuff demands he resign over a botched Brexit ferry deal which left taxpayers with a £33 million bill.
The embattled transport secretary has been branded an “international embarrassment” over the row.
Grayling was tracked down on Whitehall on Tuesday morning, a day after Health Secretary Matt Hancock acted as his “human shield” in the Commons.
The health secretary was sent to face a grilling from MPs over the multi-million pound payment to Eurotunnel to settle legal action over ferry contracts.
Grayling appeared to blame the Department of Health for the cost of the settlement and insisted he would carry on in the cabinet until Theresa May decided to sack him.
Grayling told ITV News: “The decision that we took last week was taken by the Department of Health to protect drug supplies to the UK in a no-deal exit, in the same way that these contracts were let in the first place after a discussion and a decision by a cabinet committee because we had to prepare for all eventualities.
“We all want to work for a deal, we are still working for a deal, we don’t want to leave without a deal, but we have to be ready for all eventualities.
“This was a sensible part of contingency planning to make sure that we had all the resource we needed, all the drugs we needed, all the medical supplies we needed for the NHS.
“That’s why the cabinet took the decision it did and that’s why we collectively last week decided however regrettable the Eurotunnel court action was that we had to take a decision to protect the interests of the country in the circumstance of a no-deal Brexit, and that’s the right thing to do.”
He added: “I’ll carry on serving the prime minister as long as she wants me to.”
The prime minister has faced huge pressure to act over her ally’s string of mis-steps, including awarding a £13.8m no-deal Brexit ferry contract to a company with no ships, and his insistence during rail timetable chaos last year that he does not run the railways.
The transport secretary was even pilloried by The New York Times on Monday.
“They call him ‘Failing Grayling’,” the newspaper said on Twitter, sharing the article.
“He has bumbled his way from one government post to another, accused of making a hash of each, and becoming a byword for haplessness in a golden age of political blundering in Britain.”
Yesterday, shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald branded Grayling an “international embarrassment” who should be sacked without delay.
Labour whips meanwhile dubbed Hancock a “human shield” for answering McDonald’s urgent in the Commons while Grayling worked in his department.
The government last week paid out £33m to Eurotunnel, which operates the Channel Tunnel, to settle a legal challenge over the Department for Transport’s decision to award £108m-worth of contracts to Seaborne Freight, DFDS and Brittany Ferries to lay on additional ferry contracts in the case of a no-deal Brexit.