CORRUPTION is not a charge that should be laid lightly against any individual or government. Misdirected, it can besmirch individuals who have done nothing wrong and it can devalue politics altogether if baseless charges are thrown around.

So it is with considerable care that the claim that this government is corrupt should be made: in this case, it is fully justified. This is not about the actions of one or two rogue individuals — it involves a large number of ministers and ex-ministers, or even law officers and it is on a grand scale.

Crucially, it involves those at the very top. It is widely asserted, without rebuttal, that the reason Boris Johnson wanted to ditch the entire regulatory system and the regulator for MPs’ conduct was not to save Owen Paterson. This Prime Minister does not do personal loyalty in any sphere of his life.

Instead, there are numerous commentators who suggest that the real reason for this reckless upheaval is that Johnson needs to save his own skin in relation to the lavish funding of his flat redecoration.

He is also reported to be refusing to answer questions on the value of his recent paid-for holiday. There are also the many outstanding questions relating to his financial relationship with Jennifer Arcuri while London mayor. The truism is that a fish rots from the head down.

While leading Tories continue to deny or stonewall numerous personal and collective allegations of misdeeds, sleaze and corruption, there is a tendency on the part of some commentators, even on the left, to treat this all as great knock-about stuff.

But that would be a mistake. Firstly, it is clear from the email inboxes of MPs and especially Tory MPs that the government has provoked great popular anger. After all, this is the public purse that is being abused. More than this, the scandals have emerged just as living standards are falling once more.

Remember, the latest Budget included the measures to cut universal credit, renege on the Tory manifesto pledge on uplifting state pensions and increased National Insurance contributions even for the very lowest paid. The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts are that average earnings will fall.

No wonder, then, that the population at large is extremely angry. This outrage is only compounded by the suggestion that in response to charges of corruption, MPs should be paid more.

There are also major potential political ramifications. Governments can fall because of sleaze and corruption. In this country, Tory governments often have: they were a factor in Harold Wilson coming to office and it is a Blairite conceit that the 1997 election was won purely on the irresistible charms of their hero.

The truth is that Tory credibility on finances never properly recovered from 15 per cent interest rates and crashing out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism, while the general air of sleaze around the Tories became all-pervasive, as many ex-Tory ministers of the period have admitted.

Therefore, both in terms of popular perceptions and potential fallout the stakes are very high.

But the outcome partly depends on what the labour movement, campaigners and above all the Labour leadership does. It was noteworthy that when Keir Starmer published an article justifiably denouncing Tory corruption, the government was forced into a screeching U-turn on its reforms only hours later.

No-one believes that forceful opposition from the opposition is the sole ingredient that makes a government change course — but it is an absolutely necessary condition. Otherwise, a prime minister can ride out the storm safe in the knowledge that they will not pay the necessary political price for their disastrous decisions.

We need much more forceful opposition from the Labour front bench. It is disappointing to say the least that some recent opinion polling shows us just about getting our nose in front of these Tories when this is the worst government in living memory. We can be sure that a Jeremy-Corbyn led opposition would be under fire if it were not 20 points ahead.

Worse, polling seems to suggest that even if there is a marginal lead it is largely due to a Tory slump, with the Greens doing particularly well from Tory losses — only a fraction is through outright Labour gains. Clearly, so much more can be done to call out the government on corruption, on multiple jobs, on the “VIP lane” awards of contracts, the lack of scrutiny of delivery of those contracts and privatisation by stealth especially in the NHS.

This is all a huge bonanza for the private sector, Tory donors and Tory MPs themselves. It has reached gargantuan proportions in the course of the pandemic. A government that says it must cut universal credit can waste money on a tax break for bankers and £37 billion on a completely shambolic test and trace system.

The same approach was used in relation to the provision of PPE, the award of NHS outsourced contracts and all types of medical equipment. The pandemic has been a huge gravy train for Tory donors, friends and relatives and public health has come a very long way behind. A public inquiry is clearly needed.

It is not necessary to rely on die-hard opponents of the Tories like me to recognise this truth. Former Tory prime minister John Major, whose own time in office ended with his Cabinet surrounded by allegations of sleaze, has said worse.

His indictment of this government includes the charges that it has broken the law (proroguing Parliament), broken treaties (breaching the Northern Ireland Protocol) and has broken its word on many occasions. It is, he says, “politically corrupt.”

One of Thatcher’s proudest boasts is that she created New Labour — but in deindustrialising Britain she also remade the Tory Party. Gone are the patricians and Butskellite leaders like Douglas Hurd and Jim Prior.

Now the Cabinet is largely connected to all types of hedge funds, vulture funds, advisers on tax avoidance and asset strippers in private equity, with a few second-rate military types thrown in.

They have no interest in the long-term welfare of this country or the people in it. They only want to know what can be sold and where their cut is. Plus draconian laws and actions for anyone who gets in their way. Opposing them is a solemn duty.

Diane Abbott is MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington.