Schools minister Robin Walker dodges chance to back under-fire Prime Minister during Rotherham visit

Mr Walker – who was in Rotherham today to promote new measures to increase school attendance – did not respond directly when asked if Mr Johnson had his “full confidence”, with senior civil servant Sue Gray’s report on reported lockdown gatherings at Downing Street expected to be released imminently.

The minister said: “I want to see the contents of the report.

“At the moment, I think the prime minister and his ministers need to be getting on the job of delivering on people’s priorities.

“I think it’s important to get to the bottom of what did happen but the PM was right to give the apology he did to make clear he understands the concerns people have about this matter.”

Mr Walker said he had not submitted a letter of no confidence in the prime minister but would not comment on whether that might change in future, insisting: “I’m not going to get into hypotheticals.

“It’s important to wait and see what is in the report and in the mean time, we have all got a job to get on with.”