Labour say Boris Johnson staying in power leaves public 'paying price' for Government 'in chaos'

Party chairwoman Anneliese Dodds claimed politicians should be held to “high standards”, and questioned why Tories were failing to act over partygate.

Ms Dodds also criticised the announcement of a cost-of-living support package, asking why it took so long.

Asked about the report on No 10 parties by senior civil servant Sue Gray, she told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: “His response as we have seen over the last couple of days has been to try and actually change the rules that he will then be judged by because he’s seeking to water down the ministerial code.

Anneliese Dodds said as long as Boris Johnson is in power “working people are paying the price” for a Government “in chaos”.

“That’s the biggest issue here and that’s what Labour’s focused on because for as long as we have Boris Johnson at the head of Government, currently we actually aren’t seeing many of the big issues being gripped onto by the Conservatives.

“That Government continues to be in chaos and ultimately working people are paying the price.”

Challenged on whether Mr Johnson should resign regardless of whether he is officially found to have misled Parliament over partygate, Ms Dodds said “most people would draw their own conclusions”.

She said: “Ultimately you’re seeing many Conservative MPs themselves making that decision, not enough of them I would say.

“We think that ultimately politics should be clean, it should be a force for good.

“We should have all politicians held to high standards.”

It came in an interview where the Labour MP welcomed the windfall tax but said the Opposition had been calling for such a measure for five months while the Government had acted only at the last minute.

She said: “We are concerned that there doesn’t seem to be any plan to deal with the causes of that cost-of-living crisis.

“Yes, some action to deal with its symptoms that we’ve called for, as I’ve said for many months, but not action to deal with its causes.”

“It seems that this Government, they tend to be dragged kicking and screaming to action at the last minute. We need to see those longer-term plans now.”