Boris Johnson, the Tory MP and magazine editor forced to apologise last year for a Spectator leader accusing the people of Liverpool of wallowing in their own victim status, has joined a new parliamentary support group for the city.

The MP for Henley was revealed today as a founder member of the group set up by Labour's George Howarth to give political support to Liverpool during its tenure as the 2008 European Capital of Culture.

It was as shadow culture spokesman - a post he lost shortly afterwards over an ill-concealed affair - that Mr Johnson was sent to Liverpool on a mission of penitence in October 2004 after an editorial accusing Liverpudlians of "mawkish sentimentality" over the murder in Iraq of hostage Ken Bigley.

One portion of the article particularly outraged Merseysiders: the suggestion that they refused to accept responsibility for the action of "drunken fans" in the 1989 Hillborough stadium disaster.

But at Westminster today all was sweetness and light as Mr Howarth, the MP for Knowsley North and Sefton East, explained why he had invited Mr Johnson to join the new group.

" On Merseyside, they are nothing if not generous," he said - at which point Mr Johnson chipped in: "The quality of Mersey is not strained."

Michael Howard, the outgoing Tory leader who sent Mr Johnson to Liverpool and admits to a "love affair" with the city, has also joined the parliamentary group.

He said: "The difference between London and Liverpool is this - if you get into a lift in London, you will get out and no one will have said a word to each other; if you get into a lift in Liverpool, you can almost guarantee to come out laughing."

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