Independent adviser on ministers’ interests sounded as if he had never read the ‘independent’ part of the job description
There was total silence in committee room 15 for several minutes as everyone waited for the clock to tick round to 10am. Lord Geidt was totally at ease. In his element. Happy to say nothing for as long as was required. Longer even. You don’t get to have a long career in military intelligence and working for the Queen by saying any more than is strictly necessarily. And now his career highlight as the independent adviser on ministers’ interests. The ultimate establishment stooge. The man who passes for Boris Johnson’s moral guardian. Hear no evil. See no evil. Speak no evil.
Eventually, William Wragg, the baby-faced assassin better known as the chair of the public administration and constitutional affairs committee, got proceedings under way. Could Geidt give his full name for the record? “I’m Christopher Geidt,” he said. And that was just about the last straight answer we got over the next hour and a half. Geidt is the ultimate Sir Humphrey. A man who has never knowingly uttered a sentence that could not be misconstrued.
