Boris Johnson is “poisoning the well” of British democracy with his behaviour over allegedly illicit parties in Downing Street, Sir Keir Starmer has warned, claiming that the Prime Minister’s handling of the crisis risked a backlash akin to the fall-out over the 2009 MPs’ expenses scandal.

Sir Keir, who has called for the Prime Minister to resign over the scandal, alleged that Mr Johnson “flagrantly breaks the rules” and then “drags as many into the gutter with him by forcing them to defend his rule-breaking.”

A source close to Sir Keir said he feared that the ramifications of the series of revelations about parties at No 10 despite Covid-19 restrictions, could be similar to the fallout from The Telegraph’s revelations about MPs’ routine abuse of the expenses system, more than 12 years ago. 

Labour has also repeatedly criticised Mr Johnson over the redecoration of his official Downing Street residence, which was funded by a Conservative donor and peer. 

Lord Geidt, the independent adviser on ministers’ interests, exonerated the Prime Minister over the affair last year but went on to rebuke Mr Johnson and his advisers for failing to disclose a WhatsApp exchange between the Prime Minister and the peer. 

Earlier this month, Lord Geidt said he “doubted” he would still have been able to conclude “without qualification” that the Prime Minister had declared the donation correctly had he seen the messages at the time of the investigation.

‘In the right hands, politics can work’

Sir Keir said of Mr Johnson: “ The taunt that politicians are all in it for themselves becomes accepted wisdom. That mistrust suits Johnson just fine. If all politicians are all as bad as each other he can be as bad as he likes.

“But it’s not fine for our democracy. It only serves to convince people that things cannot get better, that the Government cannot improve people’s lives, and that progress is not possible because politics does not work.

“But in the right hands, used in the right way and for the right reasons, politics can work, it can be a noble cause to build a better country and a better world. Everyone who cares about our democracy has a vital interest in restoring belief in that truth. But it can’t happen whilst Boris Johnson and his politics of cynicism are poisoning the well of our democracy.”