Why 1990s Tory sleaze pales next to the scandals of Boris Johnson’s government

Brown envelopes containing “cash for questions”, secret arms deals with Saudi princes and adulterous MPs staging cringeworthy TV apologies with stonefaced wives.

Yes, “Tory sleaze” as it was dubbed – as much a 1990s landmark as the Britpop wars, England’s footballing failures and first fumbles with something called “the world wide web”.

Now the phrase is back with a vengeance, on everyone’s lips as Boris Johnson’s government is rocked by an astonishing series of scandals and inquiries. So how serious are the current controversies compared with those that disgraced John Major’s administration and cast the Conservatives out of office for 13 long years?

In fact, it is remarkable how trivial many of the 1990s “scandals” appear through 21st-century eyes – like comparing alarms over “video nasties” with the grim realities of the internet. Then, a nation raged over extramarital affairs and ministers had to resign. Now, a prime minister is unable to even say how many children he has and the public simply shrugs.

Major had made the fateful error of defining “back to basics” as a call to respect family values – exposing him to the charge of hypocrisy when families were betrayed. In contrast, Johnson’s bed-hopping is “baked in” to voters’ expectations of him and almost appears to be part of his widespread appeal as a rogue leader brave enough to break the rules.

Some of those Nineties exposes were very serious, a cabinet minister lying over lucrative arms deals and Tory MPs pocketing money from the Harrods owner to ask questions in the Commons. But the latter were small fry – unknown backbenchers and junior ministers – and, crucially, there was never any suggestion of wrongdoing by the beleaguered prime minister of the time.

In stark contrast, it is Johnson who has triggered an Electoral Commission investigation by apparently arranging for a Tory donor to secretly fund his eye-poppingly expensive flat redecoration. It is also Johnson who kept secret his relationship with a businesswoman who received money from his office, and was allowed onto his trade trips, when he was mayor of London.

It is Johnson who – although it seems to be widely forgotten – broke the law when he shut down parliament in a bid to muzzle MPs over Brexit. It is Johnson who kept a cabinet minister in post despite a ruling that she bullied her staff – and refused to even investigate another who unlawfully approved a planning application to hand millions to a Tory donor. It is another Tory prime minister who called in favours for his new paymasters at Greensill Capital – but his successor-but-one who is refusing to investigate cabinet ministers who took his calls.

All in all, the humiliated Major has every reason to resent a Johnson still basking in a huge poll lead – but nobody ever said politics is fair.