• e-mail

Boris Johnson is facing fresh Tory demands to make a personal apology for the Owen Paterson sleaze shambles today with Red Wall MPs insisting he should know 'right from wrong'.

The PM is at the mercy of a storm over the extraordinary bid to save his all from punishment for lobbying, with outrage that he ghosted an emergency Commons debate on the row last night.   

Instead he travelled 300 miles to Northumberland, near the Scottish border, on a visit to a hospital that No10 claimed was 'long-planned'. Even so pictures suggest Mr Johnson still managed to get back to London in time to have come to the House, but chose not to.

In a brief interview from Hexham, a bad-tempered premier refused to say sorry and also stoked rising anger by suggesting there was 'not much more to say' on the controversy. 

Deputy PM Dominic Raab also tried to turn the tables on Labour in interviews this morning, saying Keir Starmer should not be 'politicising' the situation. 

But sent to take the brunt of the backlash in parliament, Cabinet Office minister Steve Barclay struck a notably different tone, expressing 'regret' and admitting it had been a 'mistake' to link reform of Parliament's anti-sleaze rules to Mr Paterson's case.

A series of Conservative MPs took to their feet to condemn the behaviour of the government and Mr Johnson himself.  

Former Tory chief whip Mark Harper said: 'If the team captain gets it wrong I think he should come and apologise to the public and this House. That's the right thing to do in terms of demonstrating leadership.'

Worryingly for the PM, members of the 2019 intake - often seen as owing their careers to his electoral landslide - added their voices to the criticism.     

Mark Fletcher, a Tory member of the standards committee that recommended Mr Paterson be suspended for 30 days, said he 'would have been found to have broken the rules under any process you could create'.

The Bolsover MP said the 'vast majority of colleagues on all sides of this House are desperate to stay within the rules and are well intentioned'.

He added: 'But for those who do break the rules, the punishment must be fitting. I had no problem voting for the report that was discussed last week, I would do the same again today.

'I say with the greatest of respect to those colleagues that I think that two years here is more than enough to know the difference between right and wrong.'

The government is still far from out of the woods, with Labour standards committee chair Chris Bryant adamant that MPs must still vote formally to approve its report on Mr Paterson's activities. 

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson appears to have bolstered his No10 team amid fears it is 'failing', bringing back former close aide Ben Gascoigne as a deputy chief of staff.     

Former chief whip Mark Harper (centre) and Red Wall MPs Aaron Bell (left) and Mark Fletcher (right) were among those criticising the government over the sleaze debacle last night 

Instead of attending the Commons debate, Boris Johnson travelled 300 miles to Northumberland, near the Scottish border, on a visit to a hospital (pictured) that No10 claimed was 'long-planned'

Pictures suggest Mr Johnson still managed to get back to London in time to have come to the House, but chose not to

Lib Dem Wendy Chamberlain (right) secured the emergency debate last night and said events had been more reminiscent of the 'Duma in Moscow' than Westminster. Left, Owen Paterson (file picture)

Aaron Bell, one of 50 Tory MPs to defy a three-line whip on the issue last week, said colleagues had been placed in an 'invidious position' by the Government.

Mr Bell said he feared the 'overzealous application' of loyalty from Mr Paterson's allies had help lead the Commons 'into the extremely unfortunate decision it took last Wednesday'.

He said he is 'proud' to be part of the 2019 intake of Conservative MPs, dubbed the '109', adding: 'There is nothing like a shared experience to bond people together and I think we've all been through quite the experience over the last two years.

'I know many of my friends within that group have endured a miserable time since last Wednesday's vote.

'I know many wished they had chosen to vote differently and are beating themselves up about that, but I say to them that loyalty to one's party is also an admirable trait. This place, indeed our entire political system, couldn't function without that either.

'But the reality is that my friends should not have been put in such an invidious position.'

Mr Bell quoted a WhatsApp message sent by Conservative MP Jill Mortimer, who was elected to represent Hartlepool in May.

He told the House: 'She said ''this was a colossal misjudgement, it should not have been whipped, you should have been allowed to vote with your conscience on this''.

'I couldn't agree more and I hope the Treasury bench is listening. Let us return to the convention where House business is not whipped.'

On rebelling, Mr Bell said: 'It churns you up beforehand and leaves you a little shell-shocked afterwards.

'Perhaps next time it will be easier.'

Conservative MP Andy Carter, another member of the Standards Committee, defended its decision on Mr Paterson but acknowledged some parts of the standards system are 'confusing'.

He said: 'I do have concerns that the current set of rules and codes are complicated, although, I'm afraid, not the system that is related to paid advocacy. That, I'm afraid, is very straightforward.'

Mr Raab told BBC Breakfast today that everyone should be working for a 'robust' standards system.

'I don't think the politicisation by the Labour Party, given how much money that they take from the unions, is a particularly attractive look for Keir Starmer,' he said.

'I think we ought to actually be coming together to make sure that there's public confidence in our institutions, including how we do our job as MPs, and that we've got a robust system for complaints or impropriety, but also a fair system. That's what we should all be working towards.'

During his visit to Hexham General Hospital yesterday, Mr Johnson refused to be drawn on the chaotic events of last week. Asked whether he would apologise, the PM said: 'I don't think there's much more to be said about that particular case, I really don't.'

One Tory MP last night told The Daily Mail he was close to sending in a letter of no confidence in Mr Johnson's leadership - the first step towards a possible contest to replace him. The MP said: 'This is resonating with the public and I have had enough of it. Boris is not going to change, so we are going to trundle on until there is a critical mass to get rid of him.' 

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said MPs now had to 'sort out the mess we're in'. Mr Barclay said there was a legitimate case for reforming the Commons standards system, but acknowledged the Government had been wrong to link it to Mr Paterson's case.

'I'd like, first and foremost, to express my regret and that of my ministerial colleagues over the mistake made last week,' he said.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the PM was 'running scared' having given 'the green light to corruption' by arguing that rules to stop vested interests did not apply to his friends.

'He does not even have the decency either to defend or to apologise for his actions,' he said. 'His concern, as always, is self-preservation, not the national interest.'

Tory MPs were whipped to vote last week to create a new committee to reform the anti-sleaze rules, only for the Government to backtrack after the Opposition parties refused to cooperate.

In the bitter aftermath of the row, Mr Paterson, who denies wrongdoing, announced he was quitting as MP for North Shropshire blaming the 'cruel world of politics'.

It followed a recommendation by the Commons Standards Committee that he should be suspended from Parliament for six weeks after committing an 'egregious' breach of the centuries-old ban on paid lobbying by MPs.

Mr Johnson chatted to patients at Hexham Hospital during his visit yesterday

Many Tory MPs stayed away from the debate as the party counts the cost of the decision to target the standards system

An Ipsos MORI poll for the Evening Standard yesterday showed that the Tories have lost their lead and slipped behind Labour