Vicious blame game erupts after Boris's sleaze U-turn fiasco

Livid Tories today hammered chief whip Mark Spencer over the Commons sleaze shambles branding him 'out of his depth' and warning his credibility is 'below junk bond status'.

Mr Spencer is facing the wrath of many MPs over the bungled bid to save Owen Paterson from punishment over lobbying, which culminated in an humiliating U-turn and the ex-minister resigning from parliament.

The meltdown is said to have left some MPs in marginal Red Wall seats 'in tears' as they were hit with a barrage of abuse on social media and in their postbags. 

However, allies of Mr Spencer have hit back by pointing the finger at Mr Johnson - saying the chief would not have acted without 'total support and approval' from No10. 

The backlash has intensified after a poll suggested the Tories have suffered huge damage from the debacle, with their poll lead plunging by five points in a week.

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi tried to cool the growing backlash among MPs this morning, admitting that the government 'made a mistake' in retrospectively tying Mr Paterson's case to wider reforms.

But a blame game is in full swing over who was responsible for the meltdown. As well as a wave of anger about Mr Johnson's lack of judgment - with criticism that took his eye off the ball amid the COP26 summit - Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg and Mr Spencer are taking flak. 

One former minister told MailOnline that Mr Spencer had not done his job properly.  'If the PM was told about the extent of dissatisfaction then he wouldn't have pushed it,' they said. 'You could tell there was a problem because the whips were literally running around the Commons.'

Another Conservative MP said Mr Spencer is a 'very nice guy' but 'out of his depth'. 'The Cabinet is full of nodding yes men,' they raged. 'We have a chief whip who doesn't communicate anything back to No10 that he doesn't think No10 wants to hear.

'There's a mindset of we've got an 80-strong majority, we can do whatever the hell we like.

'I had two marginal male MPs from Red Wall seats in tears looking at their social media feed, looking at their emails coming in after the vote, going 'what the hell have we done?'.'

The MP insisted that his colleagues were determined not to be 'sh** on' again and would simply ignore stupid demands from the leadership.

'The chat on the WhatsApp groups is that the whips can stick their whipping up their a***. It's now every man for himself,' they said.

The premier is said to be 'p****d off' that the crisis has distracted from the progress being made on climate change at the Cop26 conference in Glasgow. Senior MPs said he was also 'livid' about triumphalist interviews by Mr Paterson in which he claimed he would not change anything about his past behaviour. 

No10 has been forced to deny claims that his botched effort to overhaul the standards process had been a 'pre-emptive' strike on commissioner Kathryn Stone - with whom Mr Johnson has clashed repeatedly.

He is still under the threat of inquiry by the watchdog into the funding of his Downing Street flat refurbishment, with a decision due to be taken on whether to go ahead once a separate Electoral Commission investigation.

No10, however, was quick to reject suggestions that the case was linked to attempts to reform the rules over the last few days.  

In a round of interviews, Mr Zahawi said creating a system of appeal for suspended MPs should not have been conflated with the Paterson case.

He told Sky News: 'The Prime Minister has always been very clear that paid lobbying is not allowed.

'The mistake is the conflation of creating a fairer system with the right of appeal for Parliamentarians to be able to put forward an appeal process.

'Conflating that with the particular case of Owen Paterson was a mistake and I think the Leader of the House, Jacob Rees-Mogg, came to the House yesterday, upon reflection yes it was a mistake, and I think it was right to come back very quickly to the House and say we need to separate these things out.

'We should work on a cross-party basis to create a fairer system, I think that's a good thing.

'And my appeal to my fellow Parliamentarians from all parties is: let's come together and create a better system with a right of appeal.'

He told BBC Radio 4 that the shambles should not cast doubt on the Mr Johnson's judgment.

'I think actually it says that the Prime Minister, when wanting to be following a process that makes the system fairer… wanted to do that,' he said.

'That is absolutely not true, and Kathryn Stone and her duties are the responsibility of the House of Commons, and the Speaker of the House.

'And I think the important thing to remember is that Parliament as the legislative chamber of our country has absolutely the right to look at and improve the system…'

Mr Zahawi said the issue of the No11 flat had been looked at by Mr Johnson's own ministerial standards adviser Lord Geidt 'and the Prime Minister was found not to have broken any ministerial code'.

'I think it was looked at by Lord Geidt, it's a ministerial declaration and I think that's the correct way of doing this. We have very good robust processes, we always want to improve them, but I think that's the correct way of doing it,' he said. 

Extraordinarily, Mr Zahawi admitted he had not read the standards report on Mr Paterson before the vote.

'I actually haven't read the report,' he said.

Asked how he could have voted on the issue when he had not read the report, he said: 'I've looked at the report, I haven't gone into the detail.

'Owen says that much of it is contested, right? I think something like 14 people have sent statements (saying) that it's contested.'

Later, on Times Radio, he added: 'So, my understanding is that there was something like 14 statements that have gone in that dispute, some of the evidence in the report, I haven't read those statements.'

Mr Paterson has said the standards process neglected to take evidence from witnesses who would have supported his cause.

Labour MP Chris Bryant, the chairman of the Committee on Standards, said every MP had been emailed urging them to read the report.

'I know ministers have a busy life, but I guess you'd hope that the Education Secretary would do his homework,' he said.

He added: 'What this really underlines is that it's best if governments stick out of independent disciplinary processes.

'I think it's been a terrible week really for Parliament and an awful lot of reputations have been unnecessarily tarnished.'

Conservative Sir David Lidington, former leader of the House of Commons, said the farce had damaged politicians' reputation.

'Clearly, there was a pretty appalling set of misjudgments involved,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

'The reputation of the House of Commons as an institution and MPs of all parties will have been damaged by the events of the last 24 hours.'

The former MP also said the affair has 'weakened the Government', making it harder for Boris Johnson to win support from backbench MPs on potentially unpopular measures in future.

'If you ask your troops to march through the lobby on something like this, and which they don't think is right, and then you U-turn on it, it's going to be more difficult next time around,' he said. 

Some sources suggested Downing Street is trying to throw Mr Spencer under the bus in order to absolve the PM of responsibility.

'The chief [whip] only does as he is ordered,' an ally of Mr Spencer told the Times, while another accused No10 of being 'spineless' and attempting to hide its own complicity in the plan. 

As the criticism continued to grow, one Cabinet minister said Mr Johnson should have made Mr Paterson 'turn up and accept his punishment' rather than put the full might of the Government machine behind him.

Another senior minister said: 'This was completely avoidable. 

'The problem with Boris is he packs his Cabinet with second-rate people, meaning there is no one to tell him he should take a different course.' 

The minister added: 'It all just looks like we're back to the 1990s – MPs getting together to support their friends.'

Meanwhile, former chief whip Mark Harper declared: 'This is one of the most unedifying episodes I have seen in my 16 years as an MP.'

The furious backlash came as: