The Prime Minister has taken “personal responsibility” for the Tories' North Shropshire by-election loss.

Speaking at a vaccination centre at Hillingdon Hospital in London on Friday, Boris Johnson said the loss of the Tory 'safe seat' to the Liberal Democrats was "very disappointing" for his party.

But he blamed the result on people's focus being on politics and politicians and not the fight against Covid-19.

Helen Morgan won the seat for the Lib Dems with a swing of 34 per cent and a majority of almost 6,000.

It comes after weeks of turbulence for the Prime Minister with talk of Christmas parties taking place in Downing Street, while the public faced restrictions on who they could be with and what they could do.

And the by-election itself was called after Owen Paterson resigned as MP following allegations of corruption.

Mr Johnson said: "Clearly the vote in North Shropshire is a very disappointing result.

“I totally understand people’s frustrations. I hear what the voters are saying in North Shropshire. In all humility I have got to accept that verdict.

“I understand that what voters want us as the Government to be doing at all times is to focus on them and their priorities.”

He added: “I’m responsible for everything that the Government does and of course I take personal responsibility.”

Asked which things going wrong under his watch were to blame for the defeat, he said: “I think that people are frustrated and I understand that… Basically what’s been going wrong… is that in the last few weeks some things have been going very well, but what the people have been hearing… is just a constant litany of stuff about politics and politicians and stuff that isn’t about them and isn’t about the things that we can do to make life better.

“And so to that extent, of course, you’re right – and I think the job of the Government is to make people like you… interested in the booster rollout and in skills, and in housing, and in everything else that we’re doing.

“And unfortunately, you’re totally right, we haven’t been able to get the focus on those issues.”

Meanwhile, senior Tory backbencher Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown has said the party paid the price in the North Shropshire by-election for a series of “self-inflicted own goals”.

Sir Geoffrey, the treasurer of the backbench 1922 Committee, warned against a “big blame game” but said Boris Johnson needs to look at how he governs the country.

He told Sky News: “We have got to calm down. It is not a morning that we want to be contemplating a big blame game or a big change, we just need to work out what we need to do in the future.

“He [Boris Johnson] has got to go away and work out how he can conduct himself and govern this country in a way that avoids these sorts of issues.

“I want him to succeed, I am giving him the benefit of the doubt. But in doing that, as one of his seasoned backbenchers, I am asking him to think carefully how he governs the country and avoid these self-inflicted measures.”

Sir Geoffrey said Mr Johnson needs to apologise if Downing Street staff are found to have held Christmas parties last year in breach of Covid restrictions.

“I think it is always a good idea to be completely honest with people,” the MP said.

“He needs to come clean with the country and apologise if rules were broken and then hopefully we can move on from that issue.”