BORIS Johnson has offered a “wholehearted apology” to the House of Commons after being fined over the partygate scandal.

Johnson arrived in the Commons to deliver his statement more than half an hour late, suggesting this was because he'd been on a video call with world leaders including US President Joe Biden.

The Prime Minister invoked the tragedy of the coronavirus and the war in Ukraine in an effort to present his role as too important to the world to be changed. 

READ MORE: Boris Johnson 'apology': Watch Live as Partygate Prime Minister faces the music

Johnson told MPs: “Let me begin in all humility by saying that on April 12 I received a fixed penalty notice relating to an event in Downing Street on June 19, 2020.

“I paid the fine immediately and I offered the British people a full apology, and I take this opportunity on the first available sitting day to repeat my wholehearted apology to the House.”

Shouts of “resign” could be heard in the Commons.

Johnson had vowed to "set the record straight" after he received a £50 fine over the gathering at Downing Street for his birthday on 19 June 2020.

He claimed it "did not occur" that he was breaking his own lockdown laws.

He said: "Let me also say not by way of mitigation or excuse, but purely because it explains my previous words in this House, that 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.”

SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said the parties the Prime Minister had denied happening were "the very same parties that the police have now fined the Prime Minister for attending".

READ MORE: Partygate: Boris Johnson facing second fine for Downing Street leaving party

He said the public knew the Prime Minister was only apologising for one reason which is "because he has been caught”.

“After months of denials, his excuses have finally run out of road and so must his time in office,” Blackford said.

“The Prime Minister has broken the very laws he wrote. To try and argue that he did not know he had broken his own laws would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious.”

The SNP MP said even “the dogs in the street know that the Prime Minister has broken the law”.

“This is the first Prime Minister to be officially found to have broken the law in office,” he added.

“Just dwell on this - a Prime Minister who has broken the law and remains under investigation over additional law-breaking.

“Not just a law breaker, a serial offender. If he has any decency, any dignity, he would not just apologise, he would resign.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the public “don’t believe a word the Prime Minister says”.

He referenced Cabinet minister Brandon Lewis earlier drawing a comparison between Johnson’s partygate fine and a speeding ticket.

READ MORE: Partygate: Boris Johnson's fine like a parking ticket, minister claims

Starmer said: “No-one has ever broken down in tears because they couldn’t drive faster than 20 miles an hour outside a school. Don’t insult the public with this nonsense."

The Labour leader also hit out at a suggestion which had been made by Tory MP Michael Fabricant’s that teachers and nurses were drinking in staff rooms during lockdown. 

“Members opposite can associate themselves with that if they want, but those of us who take pride in our NHS workers, our teachers and every other key worker who got us through those dark days will never forget their contempt," he added. 

MPs will get the chance to debate and vote on Thursday whether Johnson misled Parliament over his assurances covid rules were followed in Downing Street.