The partygate scandal was “overblown” and people should not have been given fixed penalty notices for breaking Covid rules, Kemi Badenoch has said.
The new Tory leader made the surprising comments in her first interview since beating Robert Jenrick in the race to succeed Rishi Sunak.
She also described Boris Johnson as “a great prime minister”, even though she was one of dozens of senior Conservatives who resigned from his government.
Johnson and Sunak were also among those who were fined for breaking the Covid rules their own government had drawn up.
Appearing on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg on BBC1, Badenoch said: “I resigned during the Boris Johnson government. I thought he was a great prime minister, but there were some serious issues that were not being resolved.
“I think that during that tenure the public thought we were no longer speaking for them or looking out for them, we were in it for ourselves.
“Some of them I think were perception issues. A lot of the stuff that happened around partygate was not why I resigned, I thought it was overblown. We should not have created fixed penalty notices, for example. That was us not going with our principles.
“And then we had the issue with the Chris Pincher scandal, when ministers were sent out to say things that were not true. That was when I decided things had gone too far.”
Asked by Kuenssberg if the public were “wrong to be upset about partygate”, Badenoch said: “No, they were not wrong to be upset about partygate.
“The problem was that we should not have criminalised everyday activities the way that we did. People going out for walks, all of them having fixed penalty notices. That ended up creating a trap for Boris Johnson.”
Kuenssberg then asked: “Wasn’t the problem that people in government didn’t obey the rules?”
Badenoch replied: “Yes that’s right, people in government didn’t obey the rules. But they were not MPs, they were often staffers, and I think that the way that we had created those regulations ended up entrapping ...”
The presenter then interrupted her to say: “The prime minister and the chancellor both got fines, it wasn’t just people who worked for them.”
The Tory leader replied: “Indeed, but as we saw with those events, when people see the full story of what happened they understand that problems were created because of the way that we created the regulations.”
Labour chair Ellie Reeves said: “Listening to Kemi Badenoch dismiss partygate as ‘overblown’ will add insult to injury for families across Britain who followed the rules, missing loved one’s deaths and family funerals, whilst her colleagues partied in Downing Street.”
Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokesperson Sarah Olney said: “It’s clear the Conservative Party haven’t learnt anything from the years of sleaze and scandal under their watch.
“Kemi Badenoch’s comments are an insult to those who lost family members during the pandemic while Boris Johnson partied and lied.
“On day one of the job she’s already shown she’s completely out of touch with the public.”