Speaking in an urgent debate on Monday, the head of the opposition in the UK Parliament said that Johnson corrupted confidence in parliamentarians by supporting a reform of lobbying rules to protect his fellow defendant Owen Patterson, of receiving large sums of money from private companies in exchange for political favors.

After the angry reaction of the opposition parliamentarians and not a few conservatives, the president was forced to reverse that decision, and Patterson resigned shortly after to his seat.

When the prime minister says that rules designed to prevent personal benefits do not apply to his friends, then he is corrupting trust, Starmer stressed.

Johnson, who did not attend the emergency debate because of a work tour of northeast England, declined Monday to apologize for his handling of the scandal.

We have to make sure that we take all this very seriously, and that we do it well, the prime minister simply replied when questioned by the press who accompanied him on the visit.

Johnson’s place in the House of Commons was taken by Government Minister Steve Barclay, who did apologize for what happened last week and admitted that it was a mistake to try to change the appeals system and refuse to support Paterson’s suspension.

Apart from the criticism he unleashed in Parliament, the attitude assumed by the prime minister in the face of an obvious case of corruption and favoritism also reduced popular support for the government, judging by recent polls that give conservatives just one point of advantage over Labor.

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