The Tunbridge Wells MP had previously declined to comment on the scandal when it broke earlier this year, telling the Times that while he understood ‘the anger that people feel about the revelations concerning what happened in Downing Street in 2020’ he wanted to wait until ‘all the information is known’ before commenting.
Mr Clark said he would wait for the publication of the full Sue Gray report into parties at Downing Street.
The report was published last week.
The official inquiry into the Partygate scandal has said the ‘senior leadership’ in Boris Johnson’s Government must ‘bear responsibility’ for the culture which led to coronavirus lockdown rules being broken.
The report by Sue Gray said the public would be ‘dismayed’ by a series of breaches of coronavirus rules in No 10 and Westminster.
“The events that I investigated were attended by leaders in government. Many of these events should not have been allowed to happen,” she said.
The Metropolitan Police has issued 126 fines for rule breaches in No 10 and Whitehall, with the Prime Minister receiving a single fixed-penalty notice for his birthday party.
But senior civil servant Ms Gray condemned the wider culture that had been allowed to develop under Mr Johnson’s leadership.
She said some of the more junior officials who attended parties “believed that their involvement in some of these events was permitted given the attendance of senior leaders”.
The report issued by Ms Gray includes a series of photos, with Mr Johnson pictured at the surprise birthday party in the Cabinet Room on June 19, 2020, for which he received a fine.
Following the publication of the report, Mr Clark’s office told the Times the MP was unavailable to comment this week, but would make a statement after the Jubilee bank holiday weekend.
However a number of other Kent MPs have been more critical of the PM over the scandal.
Tonbridge & Malling MP Tom Tugendhat said last week the ‘Partygate’ affair showed the British government lacked ‘seriousness’.
Mr Tugendhat, who earlier this year confessed to wanting the PM role himself, said he was ‘talking to colleagues’ about whether they should dump Boris Johnson as Conservative leader as MPs ‘need to focus on who is going to lead us into the future’.
Meanwhile Thanet MP Roger Gale called for Mr Johnson to resign last week.
