A Labour life peer says Boris Johnson’s repeated failure to sack ministers following major gaffes or breaches of the public’s trust is eroding faith in politics.

Labour leader in the Lords Baroness Angela Smith of Basildon blasted the Prime Minister yesterday (September 8), at a debate in the House of Lords.

The debate was called following a series of Government controversies linked to lobbying and claims of bullying and cronyism.

The Conservative party is facing scrutiny after it was alleged its co-chairman Ben Elliot was taking payments in exchange for meetings with Prince Charles.

In recent months the PM has also come under fire for sticking by ministers amid calls for them to be sacked. Most recently Mr Johnson brushed aside cries for foreign minister Dominic Raab to get the sack after it emerged he was on holiday when Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, fell to the Taliban.

Baroness Smith said: “I do not think that our expectations are lower, but we have ceased to be surprised when a minister clings on to their job by their fingertips.”

She added: “While the individual minister and the Prime Minister may breathe a collective sigh of relief at getting away with it, they need to recognise that this chips away at the moral integrity and authority of government, and indeed of politics as a whole. That is the danger in some of the behaviour we have seen.”

But responding, Cabinet Office minister Lord True said: “I differ with some on the idea that we have now descended into an age of rust and that standards now are uniquely poor or corrupt.

“I do not believe that is true and, as I said at the outset, it does a disservice to the vast bulk of those in this place and in public service.”