Jacob Rees-Mogg has told Scots broadcaster Andrew Marr the public “needs a sense of perspective” over the Partygate fines shortly after the broadcaster opened up about burying his father during a Covid lockdown.
Mr Marr said he "felt intensely angry" after most of his family could not be at the funeral as they were following the Covid rules Boris Johnson set, while Downing Street "partied".
But Cabinet minister Mr Rees-Mogg said he had no regrets about naming the scandal "fluff" and compared it to the war in Ukraine which has devastated the eastern European country for eight weeks.
During the heated exchange on LBC, the Glasgow-born journalist and author and former BBC broadcaster said he had buried his father in the same week one of the lockdown-breaking parties was held. He said due to restrictions most of his family were unable to attend.
The Prime Minister on Tuesday apologised after he received a fine from the police for breaking Covid restrictions in 2020.
“I buried my father on the week that one of those parties took place, and it was a party. He was an elder of the Church of Scotland - that church was locked and barred,” he said.
“We had a small gathering, most of the family weren’t there. The other parishioners that he would have loved to be there weren’t allowed to be there because we followed the rules.
“And I felt intensely angry about that - and I do not regard this as fluff.”
Not commenting on the journalist’s loss, Mr Rees-Mogg responded by saying closing churches was a "great mistake" and said the war in Ukraine matters for the “security of the western world”.
He added: “Considering what is happening now two years on against what’s going on in Ukraine, what is going on with the cost of living crisis, one has to get a sense of perspective.
“What is going on in Ukraine is fundamental to the security of the Western world. And you are comparing this to a fine issued for something that happened two years ago, where the police have come to a view, which the Prime Minister has accepted.
“I think we need to look at what is fundamental to the security of our nation, and the security of the Western world."
The broadcaster responded: "I'm really sorry. But thinking about what happened to my family, and I only use that because it happened to so many others up and down the country, similar kinds of things. And we find, I would say, that word 'fluff' offensive."
Mr Rees-Mogg responded: "The Prime Minister set out in his statement, how sorry he was for what happened and for making a mistake. But I still think that in comparison with the war in Ukraine, with a fundamental threat to the safety of the west from Putin, a fine for something that happened two years ago is not the most pressing political matter."
said in the Commons, that he did not think he was breaking the law when he attended a birthday party in Downing Street held during lockdown.
Mr Johnson said in his apology to MPs: "It did not occur to me then or subsequently that a gathering in the Cabinet Room just before a vital meeting on Covid strategy could amount to a breach of the rules.
"I repeat that was my mistake and I apologise for it unreservedly. I respect the outcome of the police investigation, which is still under way, and I can only say that I will respect their decision-making and always take the appropriate steps."
A vote will be held on Thursday on whether a Commons committee should investigate whether Mr Johnson misled Parliament.
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