Boris Johnson has refused to apologise for the Tory sleaze scandal engulfing Parliament, claiming that "the UK is not remotely a corrupt country".
The Prime Minister also appeared to defend MPs having second jobs, telling journalists that the practice had gone on "for hundreds of years".
The row over second jobs comes after former minister Owen Paterson was found to have broken lobbying rules.
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Mr Paterson was found to have repeatedly breached parliamentary rules by promoting two companies that paid him a combined salary of £112,000 a year to ministers
Questions have also been raised about Tory MP and former attorney general Sir Geoffrey Cox who earned around £900,000 last year through his work as a lawyer.
Speaking at the crunch Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, Mr Johnson said he does not believe Britain’s political system is corrupt.
He said: “I genuinely believe that the UK is not remotely a corrupt country, nor do I believe that our institutions are corrupt.
“We have a very, very tough system of parliamentary democracy and scrutiny, not least by the media."
Asked if he would apologise to the public for the Tory sleaze scandal, the prime minister declined - instead saying individual MPs would be punished if they had broken any rules.
He said: "Those who break the rules must be investigated and should be punished.
"On second jobs, I would say that for hundreds of years MPs have gone to Parliament and also done work as doctors or lawyers or soldiers or firefighters or writers or all sorts of other trades and callings.
"On the whole the UK population has understood that that has actually strengthened our democracy because people basically feel that parliamentarians do need to have some experience of the world."
He added: "It is crucial that MPs follow the rules and the rules say that two crucial things, you must put your job as an MP first and you must devote yourself primarily and above all to your constituents.
"They also say that you should not use your position as an MP to lobby or otherwise intervene on behalf of any outside commercial interests.
"Those are the rules and they must be enforced and those who don't obey them should of course face sanctions."
The comments came as Labour wrote to standards commissioner Kathryn Stone requesting a formal investigation into the claims that Sir Geoffrey used his office for legal work, branding it a “scandal”.
Ms Rayner said: "We think that Geoffrey Cox shouldn’t be using his parliamentary resources, including his office, to represent a tax haven that has been accused by the British Government of corruption.
“It’s completely unacceptable and that shouldn’t be happening.”
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