PEOPLE need to move on from the partygate scandal as it is not like Boris Johnson “robbed a bank”, a Tory MP has said.

Andrew Rosindell, who represents Romford at Westminster, also told Sky News that people focusing on the parties held on Whitehall through lockdown wanted to “destroy the government”, suggesting the situation was reminiscent of “what they did to [Margaret] Thatcher”.

He said his fellow Tories should remember the "terrible trauma" of Thatcher's ousting and not seek to repeat it.

Rosindell, speaking in front of a Union flag and a Union flag cushion, and with a Union flag pin on his lapel, tried to dismiss concerns around “partygate” and argued that Boris Johnson’s flouting of rules imposed on others was of little consequence.

He said Johnson had been elected to “get on with the job”, and “most people want him to do things to sort the country out”.

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“There’s massive issues we face today, and yet all I hear about is people talking about certain members of staff having parties in gardens and birthday cake. Really, are we going to drag another prime minister out of office on something like that?”

The Tory MP claimed Johnson had not “set out to deceive the British people”. “It’s if Carrie came in with a birthday cake, if civil servants went in the garden and had cheese and wine,” he said.

“Frankly, I think we need to move on from this. There are so many issues we’re facing. We’re about to possibly have a conflict with Ukraine. We’ve got the biggest debt in our nation’s history. We have public services that need reforming. We have issues with Brexit and the Northern Ireland protocol. We have immigration, illegal immigration and the boats still coming over which needs sorting.

“I want my Prime Minister to deal with those issues, not to be constantly distracted by all this noise going on in the background which is going to make no difference at all to the interests of our country.”

Confronted with Johnson’s previous storytelling around partygate, Rosindell admitted he had “made mistakes” but said “we all do”.

“Let’s not be so judgmental. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has not committed some horrendous, terrible crime that deserves the entire government to be derailed with months of leadership election where, you know who’s going to be governing the country. It won’t be ministers, it will be civil servants.

“Lots of upheaval, lots of uncertainty. This is not in the interests of our country.”

Asked if he thought it was ok for the Prime Minister to break the rules he had set, Rosindell said: “Of course not.” However, he argued that lots of people break the law “in small ways” and “unintentionally”.

“He’s not robbed a bank,” he went on. “This is getting out of control.”

Asked about the 16 parties within the reported scope of the Sue Gray report, Rosindell said they “weren’t all” the Prime Minister’s parties. Asked if that meant some of the parties had been Johnson's, Rosindell said he couldn't know before the publication of Gray's report.

He went on to claim people who were concerned about Johnson’s behaviour in office were determined to “destroy the Government”. “I remember what they did to Mrs Thatcher, and I think members of the Conservative Party should remember the terrible trauma,” he said.

The Prime Minister has openly admitted to attending at least one party held at the height of lockdown. Around 100 staff were invited to a BYOB event in the No 10 garden which one Tory MP said had been thrown to welcome Johnson back to work.

The Sue Gray report into partygate is expected to be published in the near future, with a police investigation into the Government’s culture of rule-flouting expected to take months or even a year.