TORY MP Jacob Rees-Mogg told Andrew Marr the public should “get a sense of perspective" over the partygate scandal after the presenter shared the story of his father’s funeral at the time of one of the Downing Street parties.

The two clashed on Marr’s LBC Radio show with the pair rowing over Rees-Mogg’s claim that partygate was political “fluff” as the presenter expressed his “intense anger” over the scandal.

Speaking on the show, Marr said: “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.

“We had a small gathering, most of the family weren’t there. The other parishioners 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.”

Rees-Mogg initially avoided directly answering Marr, preferring to say that closing churches during lockdown was a “great mistake”.

However, as he was continually pushed on the matter by Marr, the Tory MP said he stood by his use of the word “fluff”, even in light of Boris Johnson’s fine.

Rees-Mogg said: “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.”

He added: “I think we need to look at what is fundamental to the security of our nation and the security of the Western world.”

In response, Marr explained to the Brexit Opportunities Minister that his experience “happened to so many others up and down the country.” He added: “We find, I would say, that word ‘fluff’ quite offensive”.

Rees-Mogg went on to say: “I still think that in comparison with the war in Ukraine… a fine for something that happened two years ago is not the most pressing political matter”.

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He added: “The Daily Mail headline said ‘don’t forget there’s a war on’ and this is something we have to remember - we need a sense of perspective”.

In the course of the exchange, Rees Mogg also denied that Johnson had misled Parliament.

He said: “The Prime Minister has been given a fixed penalty notice by the police for an event that he thought was part of the routine day. It is perfectly possible for the Prime Minister to have thought what he thought to have said that to Parliament, and for the police to have come to a different conclusion. This is not outlandish. It's not unreasonable. And it's not dishonest.”