THE OBSERVER – EDITORIAL: Sleaze has become a defining aspect of Boris Johnson’s politics. Britain deserves better
Former prime ministers tend to avoid engaging in personal criticism of their successors, particularly if they served as leader of the same party. Sir John Major’s verdict on Boris Johnson’s handling of the Owen Paterson affair – “shameful and wrong” and “politically corrupt” – is an extraordinary and devastating intervention that shows how low the prime minister’s reputation has sunk with senior members of his party. Major has even gone so far as to say that he would face a dilemma were he to have to consider voting for Johnson at the next general election.
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Johnson faces other questions over his personal integrity, including over the value of a free luxury holiday he accepted as a gift in recent weeks in Spain. His attitude infects standards right across government. When an investigation found Priti Patel had broken the ministerial code by bullying civil servants, it was not she who resigned, but the independent adviser on ministerial standards. The National Audit Office found last year that those with personal ministerial contacts were far more likely to win lucrative, pandemic-related contracts for personal protective equipment. » | Observer editorial | Sunday, November 7, 2021
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