Owen Paterson corruption row rages, voters say this government is mired in ...

Boris Johnson is leading the ‘sleaziest’ government in more than 40 years of British politics and is considered more than twice as ‘sleazy’ as Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, according to a Daily Mail poll.

In the week that the Owen Paterson scandal led to accusations of a return to Tory corruption, voters believe MPs should be ordered to give up lucrative second jobs outside Parliament – with claims of wrong-doing investigated by a High Court judge, not politicians themselves, the survey found.

But even amid widespread criticism of his bungled handling of an attempt to ditch the parliamentary standards system, the Prime Minister is still ahead of Sir Keir in the personal ratings war.

The poll was carried out during an extraordinary week in Westminster, which ended with former Cabinet minister Mr Paterson resigning as an MP – and senior Tories seriously questioning the judgment of Mr Johnson, who had backed him.

Mr Paterson had previously been found guilty of breaking Commons rules by lobbying for two firms that paid him £500,000, and was facing a 30-day suspension from the Commons as punishment.

In an attempt to let Mr Paterson off the hook, the Government backed and won a vote on plans to tear up Parliament’s anti-sleaze rules on Wednesday.

But the next morning, the Government was forced into a humiliating U-turn in the face a public outcry and anger among Tories, who had been forced to back the amendment.

With Mr Johnson’s support effectively withdrawn, Mr Paterson quit what he described as ‘the cruel world of politics’ on Thursday.

The JL Partners poll for the Mail shows that nearly one in three (31 per cent) believe Mr Johnson’s administration is the worst behaved in terms of corruption, dating back to Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1979.

A total of 22 per cent say Tony Blair’s government was ‘sleazy’, with 9 per cent of voters awarding the same badge of shame to David Cameron’s administration.