In lieu of a No. 10 spokesperson on the media round this morning, Kay Burley invited Tory grandee Sir Roger Gale to give his thoughts on the ITV recording. Gale observed that “If this was in The Thick of It then people wouldn’t believe it, it would be a joke. Unfortunately it’s not funny.” He pointed out if Boris did mislead the Commons over the party it would be a breach of the ministerial code and be a resigning matter.

To be fair to the PM, Gale is a long-standing outspoken critic, so his comments might have been expected. Still, it’s funny to see Kay Burley having to ask questions about illegal lockdown parties on a certain anniversary…

UPDATE: Another Tory MP, Anne Marie Morris, also condemned the party:

Clearly there were rules in place that most of us were diligently following (despite how difficult they were) and they decided to break them. It's not on and, at the very least, they should admit their blatant error and apologise for breaking the rules they imposed on society.

— Anne Marie Morris MP (@AnneMarieMorris) December 8, 2021