Boris Johnson must "attend and apologise" for the Tory sleaze scandal during a Commons debate on Standards, Keir Starmer has said.
Ahead of an emergency debate in the Commons on Monday, the Labour leader called on the Prime Minister to “answer, apologise and act” over the corruption scandal engulfing the Government.
Johnson caused public outrage on Wednesday when he told Tory MPs to back a plan to change the standards system that found Owen Paterson, a former Cabinet minister, guilty of lobbying on behalf of two private companies.
But faced with a rebellion and a tidal wave of sleaze allegations the PM but changed his mind on Thursday and Paterson resigned as an MP.
Speaking on the eve of the Commons debate on standards, Starmer said the Prime Minister is the last person who can be relied on to help “clean up” politics after Johnson tried to overturn the whole disciplinary process for MPs to protect his disgraced former friend.
Starmer said: “The country is yet to hear a word of contrition over his attempts to create one rule for him and his friends and another for everyone else. He must now come to the House and say sorry.
“He should start by confirming that he won’t nominate Owen Paterson - or any other MPs who have been handed suspensions from Parliament - for a peerage.
Starmer added: “Instead of upholding standards, he ordered his MPs to protect his mate and rip up the whole system – that is corrupt, it is contemptible and it’s not a one-off.”
Earlier on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show Starmer said he was “angry” that the reputation of the country and democracy is being “trashed” by the Prime Minister.
He went on: “When there was sleaze in the mid-1990s John Major rolled up his sleeves and he put in place the Nolan Committee on Standards in Public Life – so he was the prime minister who said I will clear this up.
“Boris Johnson is the Prime Minister who is leading his troops through the sewer – he’s up to his neck in this."
“I don’t think you or anybody else could with a straight face say this Prime Minister is the man to clean up politics and to have the highest standards in public life because he is in the sewer with his troops.”
Ahead of a debate in the Commons on Monday the SNP accused Johnson of a “coordinated smear campaign” against the Standards Commissioner who investigated the misconduct of disgraced former MP Owen Paterson.
Ian Blackford, the SNP Westminster leader, called for a formal inquiry into how the Prime Minister attempted to undermine Standards Commissioner Kathryn Stone.
The Prime Minister had to abandon an attempt to overturn a 30-day suspension of his Tory MP friend Owen Paterson, over paid lobbying on behalf of two private companies, by changing the whole disciplinary process for MPs.
Blackford called out the “unacceptable attacks and conspiracy” against Stone after cabinet minister Kwasi Kwarteng suggested she should resign following the ruling against Paterson.
Stone has conducted three probes into Johnson’s activities in the past three years, and could conduct a fourth into the arrangements and payments of a luxury renovation of his Downing Street flat.
Blackford said: “Boris Johnson’s government is the sleaziest in decades and the Prime Minister is right at the centre of the Tory corruption and cronyism scandal that has engulfed Westminster.”
But Tory Cabinet minister George Eustice attempted to dismiss the Owen Paterson affair as a “storm in a teacup”
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