Johnson: Sorry

Boris Johnson has apologised to the people of Liverpool during a visit to the city.

Johnson, the shadow culture minister and editor of the Spectator, was ordered to the North West by Tory leader Michael Howard after his magazine described residents as wallowing in "mawkish sentimentality" after the murder of local man Ken Bigley in Iraq.

But the Henley MP did not cooperate with city council calls for him to publicly apologise in the presence of councillors.

And amid fears that the trip could turn into an embarrassing media circus for the Conservatives he met journalists only from local papers and radio and television stations rather than the national press.

"He has already made an apology, which was well covered by the national media," a party spokesman said.

However he was confronted by Bigley's brother Paul on a radio phone-in show.

Johnson was called a "self-centred, pompous twit" and told to "get out of public life".

The MP has expressed contrition but defended the magazine commentary's main point that too much public grief provides an added incentive to terrorists.

He also resisted calls to give up one of the dual roles of opposition frontbencher and editor over potential conflicts of interest in the need to stick to collective responsibility.

"I don't feel I should resign. I think that would be a kind of admission that the whole point of the leader was wrong," he said.

"I would have to kind of perform a full frontal lobotomy on myself.

"I can't resign over something I don't fundamentally dissent from."