The Tory attempt, led by the PM to stop Owen Paterson from being punished for 14 breaches of the rule against paid advocacy was nothing short of corrupt and the 250 MPs, all but one of them Tories who voted to protect him have brought the House into disrepute.

This Tory MP took hundreds of thousands of pounds in lobbying money then tried to use his influence with Ministers on behalf of those who were paying him. An independent committee ruled that his actions were “an egregious breach” of the rules.

In all my years in Parliament, the Government of the day has moved motions to implement reports from the Standards Committee. Instead, Boris Johnson and his Tory government decided halt the punishment whilst they used their majority to scrap the Standards Committee and replace it with a Tory run committee with an inbuilt Tory majority.

On Friday Downing Street wouldn’t deny reports that some Tory MPs were threatened with the loss of future funding for their constituencies if they didn’t support this corrupt plan. It is unethical and a breach of the Ministerial code to use public money in this way.

I have never seen anything as scandalous. It’s one rule for them and another for the rest of us. The fact that they u-turned the next day does not excuse this venal behaviour. Keir Starmer called it corrupt. Former Tory PM Sir John Major has excoriated them for this and other behaviour, such as the illegal prorogation of Parliament, the breaking of international Treaties, cutting overseas aid when it was against the law to do so and threatening to ignore a treaty they negotiated and have signed.

The PM is in the gutter and his immoral Government of grifters, chancers, liars and incompetents are dragging this Country into the mire. We must redouble our efforts to throw them out of office because they are not fit to be the Government.