BORIS Johnson has admitted to not remembering the lunch at which he allegedly groped a female journalist but nonetheless insisted the claim was “absolutely not true”.

The Prime Minister also addressed the question about whether he had had a sexual relationship with the US model-turned businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri, declaring: “I can certainly say there was absolutely no question of that at all.”

In TV interviews ahead of his keynote speech at the Conservative conference in Manchester tomorrow, the party leader sought unsuccessfully to move them away from questions about his personal life to policy issues.

Asked by ITV News if women could trust him, Mr Johnson replied: “So, I’m talking about what I’m doing for the electorate as a whole and what a lot of female voters care about is whether the streets are safe; that’s why I’ve put 20,000 police officers on the streets and women care deeply about the NHS.”

Asked if he had set a good example to the country in light of his track record with women, the PM pointed to his time as London Mayor and the “more or less total feminocracy in City Hall”.

He then suggested the flak he was getting over claims he had an affair with Ms Arcuri - whose firm benefited from thousands of pounds in taxpayers’ money and participated in official trade missions while Mr Johnson was in City Hall – and touched the thigh of journalist Charlotte Edwardes at a lunch 20 years ago was due to opposition to his determination to get Brexit done.

“I’m not going to deny that lots of stuff is being thrown at me at the moment but this is a very turbulent time in British politics and people will want to try and knock Government off-course because, at the moment, the task is a difficult mission but a vital mission, that is, to get Brexit done by Oct 31st.”

When asked by ITV News’s Paul Brand if he was saying questions about his personal life were somehow politically motivated, the Tory leader replied: “There are lots of different points that you sort of kicked off with, and some of them are completely untrue and, and, actually all of them completely untrue.”

He said he did not wish to minimise the points being made but he had to “focus on the job in hand,” which was to deliver Brexit by October 31.

Asked about what he remembered about the lunch at which Ms Edwardes claimed he groped her, the PM declared: “All I know is it is not true.”

Asked if he remembered having the lunch, he replied: “I don’t to be honest. I have no memory[of it] whatever.”

When it was put to him how he could say the claim was not true when he could not remember the event he had attended, Mr Johnson replied: “Well, I can tell you it is absolutely not true.”

But asked why people should take his word over the allegation over someone who did remember the lunch in question, he added: “Because it is not true, for all sorts of reasons, and I don’t wish as I say to minimise importance of subject, I don’t wish to cast aspersions on the motives of anybody who makes this type of allegation but it is not true.

“And what I want to do is focus on our domestic agenda. And if I say so there are more announcements at this conference than I have seen anywhere at Conservative conferences,” he added.

In an interview with Sky News, the PM was also challenged over the groping allegation and asked if Ms Edwardes was lying.

“I don’t in any way minimise the importance of these types of allegation or this type of thing but this is not true. And all I can say is…actually, I can’t say anymore than that. What I want to do is focus on the domestic agenda we have.”

When it was pointed out that Matt Hancock, the UK Health Secretary, appeared to come out and back Ms Edwardes, Mr Johnson questioned whether that was the case.

“I'm not certain that's the conclusion that I would draw….What I want to do is focus on our domestic agenda, which is not just investing massively in hospitals but also in things like gigabit broadband, a level of education funding, in giving people opportunity across the country.

“That's why we pay so much attention to things like improving bus services, they make a huge difference to people; that's why I care so much about things like the living wage. What we want is a high wage, low tax, high productivity economy with great respect to all those other issues that you have rightly raised. That’s what the country wants to focus on,” insisted the PM.

In a BBC interview the groping allegation was raised again. Asked if he remembered the event, Mr Johnson replied: “There is not much more I can say.” Asked again, he said: “There is not much more I can say. It is not true.”

When a line he wrote almost a year ago about claims of sexual mistreatment was put back at him - "to all those who worry if we might be a teensy bit unfair on the male sex, I say forget it, put a sock in it. We need that feminist rage" – the PM accepted such allegations had to be taken seriously.

“There's not much more I can say about this issue. Since I've said it several times. But what I can say is that we are focused on delivering on our domestic agenda, I'm very proud of what we're doing on the living wage…taking huge numbers of people out of low pay…”

When Laura Kuenssberg asked him if he was worried about what women voters thought of him, Mr Johnson replied: “Yes, of course, of course, and these are important issues.

“But I can't really can't give you any more on that subject than what I've already said. Perhaps I could I could remind you, when you ask about female voters, what we are doing.

“When I was running in London, we had an administration that was very, very largely women-led and I was very proud of that. We have large numbers of women in the Cabinet today. We have as many as there has ever been: Home Secretary, Business Secretary and so on. And we're very, very, very proud of that.

“When I was Foreign Secretary, my signature policy, most important thing we did was to campaign for 12 years of quality education for every girl in the world. That's a fantastic thing too.”

Asked if the job of PM was harder than he had expected, Mr Johnson said it was a wonderful job.

“Yes, it's a hard job but every day we are making progress. We can get Brexit done…We can get the country to focus on what we're trying to do for people who care about the NHS, for people who care about their kids’ education, for people who want to see the opportunity extended across this country through infrastructure, education and technology.

“This is going to be a fantastic government and we want to get on and deliver for the people of this country,” he added.