Sir Keir Starmer has accused Boris Johnson of contaminating politics and causing damage to Britain’s reputation “around the world” by “devaluing” standards.
As the prime minister faces calls to resign and threats of a no confidence vote from his own MPs over the fallout of rule-busting parties in No 10, the Labour leader hit out at a government in “paralysis”.
In a personal attack, Sir Keir also claimed Mr Johnson’s tactic was to “drag everyone into the gutter with him” amid outrage over separate comments on the disgraced paedophile Jimmy Savile.
Sir Keir’s intervention came during a speech on trust in politics and other institutions on Tuesday, suggesting Mr Johnson believed the “normal rules of politics” did not apply to him.
“His strategy is to devalue the rules so they don’t matter anymore, so that politics becomes contaminated,” he said. “Cynicism and alienation replace confidence and trust. I simply refuse to accept that Britain can’t be governed better than this.
He added: “I will always fight to defend those essential British values of honest, decency and integrity.
“We don’t have to accept the repeated lies from the despatch box. Or the casual devaluing of the office that does so much damage around the world”.
His comments follow those of former defence chief, general Richard Dannatt, who cast doubt on the “flawed” prime minister’s ability to influence events at the weekend.
Ahead of Mr Johnson’s visit to Ukraine and his call with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, he warned that leaders know he has a “time bomb under him” due to his domestic political problems.
Speaking at the launch of the 2022 Edelman trust barometer, which examines how the public feel about business, governments and the media, Sir Keir also told an online audience that he was “not surprised” that trust had fallen in politics and politicians “given recent events”.
He said: “Two-thirds of the public think that the way politicians act undermines democracy. Six out of 10 people think politicians are likely to lie to them — six out of 10 — sadly that doesn’t surprise me, given recent events, but it does disappoint me, it frustrates me.”
“It’s inevitable when we have a government that is misleading the public and covering up their own wrongdoing to save the prime minister’s job,” he claimed.
“This is a government in paralysis — instead of representing the people who elected them and addressing the challenges the country faces, they’re intent on saving themselves, not the country.”
