It took time to establish facts over minister complaint, says UK PM's spokesman

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was briefed on an incident involving a minister in 2019 but his team had not intentionally misled anyone with an earlier response because it took time to establish what had happened, his spokesman said on Tuesday.

"We provided information to the best of our abilities at that time and I think it is clear we've since established that there was an update in some form ... but sometimes it can take some time to establish what happened particularly on issues that relate to a number of years ago," the spokesman told reporters when asked why the account provided before the weekend had been changed.