Ashby MP Andrew Bridgen has revealed he was invited to two parties at No10 Downing Street during the Covid pandemic lockdown - but refused to attend either of them.

The ex-Conservative Party MP - now a member of the Reclaim Party - posted on social media in the wake of the Sunday Mirror making public a video from one of the 'Partygate' gatherings in December, 2020.

Now, Mr Bridgen says he was asked to attend 'drinks parties' at No10 in early December, 2021.

He says he refused as it went against the Government's lockdown plans which were planned to be in place in his North West Leicestershire constituency over Christmas.

The Ashby MP posted: "Can I point out that, I was invited to two drinks parties at Number 10 in early Dec 2021, just before the #Partygate scandal broke.

Coalville MP Andrew Bridgen. Photo: You Tube

"I refused both invites on the grounds it would be completely inappropriate as the UK House of Commons were planning to lockdown my constituents at Christmas, something I would not support and voted against."

In the end, the Government did not introduce stricter rules over that Christmas and new year period.

But Mr Bridgen's admission confirms that it was not just No10 staff that were being invited to the parties, but also sitting MPs.

At the time, Mr Bridgen was emerging as a significant opponent to the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove today (Sunday) said that a video showing Conservative Party workers at a Christmas party during lockdown in 2020 is "terrible" and "completely out of order".

The video showed people dancing and drinking at a gathering - ignoring strict social distancing rules imposed by the government at the height of the pandemic.

"The fact this party went ahead is indefensible," Mr Gove told the Sky News programme Sophy Ridge on Sunday.

Boris Johnson - a former close ally of Mr Bridgen during the Brexit campaign - quit as an MP last week ahead of the damning Privileges Commitee report, which concluded last Thursday that the former Prime Minister repeatedly and deliberately lied to them about breaking COVID lockdown rules, and recommended the harshest possible punishment.

The committee's report was never expected to be easy reading for the former prime minister. But it proved even worse than that.

It says his denials "were so disingenuous that they were deliberate attempts to mislead the Committee" and talks about the "frequency with which he closed his mind to the truth."