British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (left) plays a game with a resident during a visit to Westport Care Home in east London on Tuesday. Breaking an election pledge not to raise taxes, Johnson on Tuesday announced hefty new funding to fix a social care crisis and a pandemic surge in hospital waiting lists. Photo: AFP

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday dismissed claims that corruption was rife in Britain, as his ruling Conservative party was embroiled in a slew of high-profile sleaze allegations about MPs with second jobs.

Revelations that former attorney general Geoffrey Cox used his parliamentary office for lucrative private work have triggered a standards inquiry, even as he maintained he had not broken any rules.

It came after Johnson last week tried - and failed - to change the rules on sanctioning errant MPs, when another Tory MP, Owen Paterson, was found to have lobbied ministers for two firms that had him on the payroll.

Both cases have opened up MPs to renewed scrutiny about potential conflicts of interest, more than a decade after a scandal over expenses that caused public anger and prompted a string of resignations.

But Johnson told reporters on a flying visit to the UN climate change summit in Glasgow: "I genuinely believe that the UK is not remotely a corrupt country. Nor do I believe that our institutions are corrupt."

MPs who break the rules should face the "appropriate sanction," he said, adding in response to a question from AFP that in his own case, "all my declarations are in conformity with the rules."

Johnson, whose poll ratings have slumped in recent days, is himself facing questions about who paid for recent holidays he took to the Caribbean and Spain, as well as the expensive makeover of his Downing Street flat.

There have also been repeated claims of cronyism during the coronavirus pandemic in the awarding of multi-million pound contracts without following tendering rules.

The Tory party is similarly facing calls to explain how and why it routinely offered wealthy donors who gave more than £3 million ($4 million) seats in the unelected upper chamber House of Lords.

In the House of Commons, Cox broke his silence on the claims against him, insisting he always gave constituency work "primary importance" and said he would accept the judgment of parliamentary standards watchdogs now probing his case.

AFP