John Major does not hold back as he labels Boris Johnson ‘corrupt’ in unprecedented attack
Former Prime Minister Sir John Major suggested the Johnson administration was “politically corrupt” over the way it treats Parliament.
“I’m afraid that the Government, with their over-large majority, do tend to treat Parliament with contempt. And if that continues, it will end badly,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today.
“They bypass Parliament at will and the Speaker has expressed his frustration about that on many occasions, and rightly so.
“But they also behaved badly in other ways that are perhaps politically corrupt.”
That included briefing announcements to sections of the press before MPs.
Sir John Major suggested there was an arrogance at the heart of Boris Johnson’s administration.
“There is a general whiff of ‘we are the masters now’ about their behaviour,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today.
“I have been a Conservative all my life and if I am concerned at how the Government is behaving I suspect lots of other people are as well.
“It seems to me, as a lifelong Conservative, that much of what they are doing is un-Conservative in its behaviour.”
Sir John launched an extraordinary broadside at Boris Johnson’s Government over the Owen Paterson row.
He said: “I think the way the Government handled that was shameful, wrong and unworthy of this or indeed any government. It also had the effect of trashing the reputation of Parliament.”
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today the actions of Mr Johnson’s administration was “damaging at home and to our reputation overseas”.
Sir John, whose own government in the 1990s was undermined by sleaze rows, said: “When that happened I set up the Nolan Committee on Standards in Public Life to stop it, which has been a huge success.
“The striking difference is this: in the 1990s I set up a committee to tackle this sort of behaviour.