The peer said that ‘with regret’ he is resigning as the Prime Minister’s adviser on ministerial interests.
15 June 2022
Boris Johnson’s ethics chief has resigned a day after telling MPs it was “reasonable” to suggest the Prime Minister broke the ministerial code by breaching lockdown laws.
Lord Geidt became the second ministerial interests adviser to resign during the Prime Minister’s three years in office when a brief statement was published by the Government on Wednesday evening.
“With regret, I feel that it is right that I am resigning from my post as independent adviser on ministers’ interests,” it read.
No reason was given for his shock departure and Downing Street is yet to respond.
Labour renewed its calls for Mr Johnson to resign, accusing him of having “driven both of his own hand-picked ethics advisers to resign in despair”.
A little over 24 hours earlier, the crossbench peer declined to deny that he had previously considered quitting over Mr Johnson’s response to being fined by police over partygate.
Lord Geidt told the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee that he had felt “frustration” and that the option of resignation was always “on the agenda”.
“Resignation is one of the rather blunt but few tools available to the adviser. I am glad that my frustrations were addressed in the way that they were,” he said.
It was reported that Lord Geidt had threatened to quit last month after the publication of the Sue Gray report into lockdown breaches in Whitehall unless Mr Johnson issued a public explanation for his conduct.
In response, the Prime Minister issued a letter to Lord Geidt saying he believed any breach of Covid laws when he attended a gathering in the Cabinet room for his 56th birthday had been “unwitting”.
He insisted he was acting in “good faith” when he told Parliament there had not been any parties.
On Tuesday, Lord Geidt, a former private secretary to the Queen, accepted it was “reasonable” to suggest the Prime Minister may have breached the ministerial code by being handed a fixed-penalty notice by the Metropolitan Police.
Lord Geidt: “it’s reasonable to say that perhaps a fixed penalty notice and the Prime Minister paying for it may have constituted not meeting the overarching duty under the ministerial code of complying with the law”
— PACAC Committee (@CommonsPACAC) June 14, 2022
However, he indicated he would not be launching an investigation into Mr Johnson even though he has since gained greater powers to initiate his own inquiries.
He described himself as an “asset of the Prime Minister as a minister of the Crown” rather than a “free-orbiting adviser”, and still required Mr Johnson’s final consent before starting an investigation.
The first of Mr Johnson’s ethics advisers to quit was Sir Alex Allan, who resigned in 2020 after the Prime Minister refused to accept his finding that Home Secretary Priti Patel had bullied civil servants.
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said: “The Prime Minister has now driven both of his own hand-picked ethics advisers to resign in despair. If even they can’t defend his conduct in office, how can anyone believe he is fit to govern?
“The person who should be leaving No 10 tonight is Boris Johnson himself. Just how long does the country have to wait before Tory MPs finally do the right thing?”
