Boris and Carrie Johnson's planned wedding party being moved from Chequers

Mr and Mrs Johnson had reportedly been ploughing on with plans for a wedding bash at Chequers, the grace and favour home of the Prime Minister, as he shifts to a caretaker role in his final days in office.

But minutes after Education Secretary James Cleverly suggested on Radio 4 the party should be allowed to go ahead even if Mr Johnson is no longer PM at that point.

The party is reportedly planned for the end of the month and is a delayed celebration of his marriage to wife Carrie. The pair married last year in a small ceremony of 30 guests due to Covid restrictions.

Mr Johnson said yesterday he was resigning as Prime Minister but would not be stepping down until a new Tory leader is elected - a process likely to take months. It has been suggested that one of the reasons he wishes to stay on as PM on an interim basis was because of the planned party - a claim that has been denied by No 10.

Mr Clevely was asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if Mr Johnson should still have the celebration at the prime minister’s country house in July if it is in someone else’s hands by then.

Mr Cleverly said: “I think that if that is done by that point in time, I suspect that it would be a rather generous action of the new prime minister to allow that to go ahead.

“Private functions like that do not impose a burden on the public purse…

“I think it’s churlish to be negative about two people who want to celebrate their marriage and their love for each other.”

Asked earlier about the issue of the wedding party on Sky News, Mr Cleverly said he had not received an invite and described reports about the planned event as "media speculation".

“So the so the point is, he is very, very clear, that we are here to serve the British people, he is also very clear that we do that until the new prime minister is in place, and that’s what he’s doing personally.”

Mr Cleverly insisted Boris Johnson “is resigning” as Prime Minister, despite not having used the word in his resignation speech.

He told Sky News: “There’s no such thing as a caretaker prime minister. In our system, there is a prime minister.

“He is resigning from his role as Prime Minister and leader of the the party once a successor has been appointed.”

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