The former director of strategy for Tony Blair criticised Mr Johnson over his failure to follow the Nolan principles in his response to Mr Hancock’s breach of the coronavirus rules. He suggested the Prime Minister failed to discipline those in his Cabinet who had broken the rules.

       Mr Campbell told BBC Newsnight: “There are really, really important principles at stake here. There are principles that are meant to govern public lives, the Nolan principles, and I think Johnson fails on all of them.

       “Honesty, openness, objectivity, selflessness, integrity, accountability and leadership.

       “And maybe he leads by example in breaking all those rules as regularly as he does.

       “He gives permission to people like Priti Patel to break the ministerial code and get away with it, Michael Gove to break the law and say it doesn’t matter, Hancock to do the same.”

       He added: “In this government you will not get sacked for lying, you will not get sacked for cheating, you will not get sacked for being useless at your job like most of them are… but you will get sacked if you tell the truth about what’s happening in the country.”

       Viewers of the programme took to social media platforms to continue the debate on whether Mr Johnson had dealt appropriately with the Matt Hancock affair.

       One person wrote: “I did have some unpleasant arguments with Alastair Campbell.

       “I think I have to agree with him just now.”

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