The remaining public trust in MPs has been "shattered" by the Conservatives' handling of the Owen Paterson case, a senior SNP figure has claimed.
Pete Wishart - a long serving Nationalist MP - hit out at Boris Johnson and his party for failing to get to grips with allegations of sleaze.
The Tories last night voted through a proposal that is expected to lead to a ban on MPs taking paid political consultancy work.
But the SNP and Labour abstained from the vote - with Keir Starmer claiming Conservative proposals were a watered down version of his own plan to clean up the Commons.
Johnson yesterday admitted it was “a total mistake” to try to defend his former colleague Owen Paterson for breaking lobbying rules in a move that triggered a fortnight of Tory sleaze scandals.
But the PM stopped short of apologising for the debacle during a grilling by senior MPs on the Commons Liaison Committee.
Perth MP Wishart today said the 2009 expenses scandal - when details of politicians' spending were leaked to the press - had already dented public faith in politics but warned the Paterson case had made things worse.
Asked how concerned he was at the reputational damage done to politicians at Westminster by recent events, Wishart told the BBC: "I was in the House when the expenses scandal was at its zenith and that changed the perception of Members of Parliament.
"I didn't think we (MPs) would get back to that situation again - I thought we had done enough to clear our own house and regain a little bit trust in politics.
"But that has been absolutely shattered over the course of the past couple of weeks with the behaviour of some of the Conservative Members of Parliament.
"It's very clear there is ongoing issues of corruption and sleaze."
Wishart added: "What happened yesterday was an attempt to deflect some of the real issues that are going on in our politics.
"It is unfortunate we are all tarred with the same brush when it comes to this."
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