Shadow Policing Minister Matt Vickers has denied that the Conservative Party is ineffective as the main opposition to Labour in the House of Commons.
He told GB News: “We're in opposition, we’re going through a leadership election, and we're here. We're making the noises, but we've got to get the country to listen to us again.
“We're not the people that people want to listen to at the moment but actually we're making the case…you can't contrast the donor scandals that are going on with the Labour Party at the moment with anything that's gone before it.
“We've never seen donors to a political party given jobs on the scale that we've seen in the last few weeks.
“We've never seen the glasses for passes scandal, where a guy who buys some very swanky glasses for the Prime Minister can stroll into Downing Street with his pass and have a waddle round.
“We've never seen question marks about somebody buying the Prime Minister's wife's clothes. All of these things aren't just people getting donations. They're actually people giving people favours in return for donations.
“And the place in which it's most abhorrent, the place in which it stinks the most, is when it comes to the unions.”
He added: “We heard that the multi-millionaire Prime Minister needed some help to buy his wife's clothes, at the same time as the Prime Minister is dragging away the winter fuel allowance from pensioners on £13,000. It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.
“The people who elect that Prime Minister, who elect me, who elect the Government, out there on the streets would love to have a £2,000 pair of glasses. Would love to have someone paying for their wife's clothes.
“It's wrong. It's not acceptable. The last person who paid for my clothes was my parents, and they had quite a lot of influence over me at the time.
“It's not right…it's not just the contribution, it's not just the gift, it's not the donation, it's the fact that something is expected in return.
“In this case, the chap who bought these dresses got free access to the highest office in the land. He strolled in and out of Number 10. That is not acceptable.”
Vickers said there was no comparison with the scandals that engulfed Boris Johnson: “I don't think it compares. I don't think it compares to a guy who was already a peer getting free access to Number 10 in exchange for some glasses and clothes…they should be declared properly.
“I think there's question marks about how these clothes were declared. They will happen. They're part of the game.
“But actually, it's what you give people in return, whether that's all these unions getting huge pay rises, inflation-busting pay rises for public sector workers, or whether it be the access to jobs that were given to donors as civil servants, it's just not acceptable.
“It completely stinks, particularly when people out there are facing challenges with the cost of living and…grannies losing their winter fuel allowance, and they’re dishing out jobs.”
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