Keir Starmer has said he will not be "taking lectures" about propriety from his predecessor's government, following concerns over a number of controversial civil service appointments.
Taking questions after his first major speech as prime minister this morning, the prime minister dismissed allegations of cronyism that have emerged in recent weeks.
Labour has faced questions after it emerged that a party donor, Ian Corfield, had been appointed to the Treasury as a director without the usual open recruitment process. Criticisms snowballed after two people who had worked at Labour Together, the think tank closely affiliated with the party, were hired to posts in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Cabinet Office.
And over the weekend, it emerged that another Labour donor was given a pass to No.10 despite not having a formal post. Downing Street has confirmed Waheed Alli was given a "temporary" pass to No.10 that he returned "several weeks ago".
This morning, Starmer faced questions over whether he would deliver on his promise to "get the rot out" of politics. He was asked if he should commission a review "to set the record straight" over ministers' decisions to hire Corfield and others outside the usual appointments process.
"Most of these allegations and accusations are coming from the very people that dragged our country down in the first place," he said.
"We are going to fix the foundations, we've got to do it at speed, but I'm determined to have the right people in the right places to allow us to get on with that job. I'm enormously aware of how big a task this is and how we have to move at pace, and that's why we're getting the best people into the best jobs. But I'm not really going to take lectures on this from the people who dragged our country so far down in the last few years," he added.
Starmer was also asked about the pass given to Lord Alli.
A No.10 source told BBC News that Lord Alli had held a post-election garden reception during the brief time he had the pass. However, they declined to say why he had one, or when or why he gave it up.
Alli, a media entrepreneur who co-created the television series Survivor, was Labour's chief fundraiser for the general election and has donated more than £500,000 to the party over the past two decades.
"If you take Lord Alli, he's a long term donor and contributor to the Labour Party. He was doing some transition work with us. He had a pass for a short-term time to do that work. The work finished, and he hasn't got a pass. That's the state of affairs," Starmer said.
Starmer said it was not the case that "process doesn't matter".
"I'm absolutely determined to restore honesty and integrity to government, because I think that is core to ensuring that people appreciate that politics can be a force for good. I think one of the reasons people have been disillusioned, disaffected, if you like, in recent years, is because they can't see politics as a force for good. So process and procedure and doing things properly matters to me beyond the fact that it... should be done properly," he added.
Senior Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden was also asked about Alli's pass on Sunday.
Speaking to Sky News, McFadden the pass had been issued temporarily to enable Alli to attend political meetings.
“I don’t think it’s unusual for people to have passes to attend political meetings if they need to do so," he said.
The news had prompted John Glen to write to cabinet secretary Simon Case with questions about who had requested the pass – Starmer or Sue Gray, his chief of staff, who some critics have suggested may be responsible for the controversial appointments.
"A Downing Street pass should be a privilege reserved for those that require access for work, including civil servants and special advisers, not those requiring occasional access as is possible through the visitor notification system, without requiring a permanent security pass," the former Cabinet Office minister said.
"It is therefore deeply concerning that a pass was granted to a Labour donor providing unfettered access to the heart of government after significant cash and non-cash donations were made to the Labour Party."