Boris Johnson struggles to persuade Tory MPs worst of sleaze scandal is over

The Prime Minister tried to reassure his MPs tonight that the worst of the sleaze scandal is behind them. But the response he got from backbenchers at the 1922 Committee was "muted", according to one MP who attended the meeting. Another said it had "certainly been a rough couple of weeks". Earlier, Boris Johnson finally admitted that there was "no question" that Owen Paterson had "fallen foul of the rules".

Yet he’d got his MPs to vote to change the standards system so he would escape punishment, later performing a spectacular U-turn. All of this has shone a light on MP's second jobs and not in a good way. The chair of the Standards Committee Chris Bryant said the Prime Minister had "tarred the whole house with the same brush".