Tory sleaze is no surprise when self-interest is the party’s driving force.
Britain’s Got Talent judge David Walliams of all people best described the national political dividing line.
In my home town of South Shields a few years back, Walliams – a guest of then MP David Miliband – said he felt a Conservative vote was essentially selfish while a vote for Labour was more generous as it involved considering other people.
I remembered this when Boris Johnson, a sleazy Prime Minister with no moral compass, announced a limited inquiry by a Tory-connected lawyer into the exploiting of personal friendships by David Cameron, with a chunk of the Conservative Government.
Greedy Cameron thinks he did nothing wrong because cronyism, operating a chumocracy, and ruling for personal rather than national interest is simply what Tories do.
Johnson’s settling a personal grudge against his Bullingdon rival – but he’s also terrified that the public spread of the sleaze virus will destroy him the way it did John Major in the 1990s, and hopes his authorised probe into Cameron and civil servants will inoculate other Conservatives.
Beast of Bolsover Dennis Skinner’s owed an apology for the time he was kicked out of the House of Commons for calling Cameron “Dodgy Dave” – but this is the moment that Keir Starmer’s been waiting for.
There’s ample evidence that the British electorate is concerned about what the Labour leader called the return of Tory sleaze, in a strong Parliamentary performance.
Nobody likes to be taken for a mug and Cameron, Rishi Sunak, Matt Hancock and Johnson all face serious questions about Tory back-scratching.
The VIP deals for friends and family were a party looking after its own at the expense of taxpayers.
These scandals aren’t just about Dave and Boris, or Rishi, or Matt.
This is about who runs, who owns and who benefits in a Britain controlled by a conceited elite.
