Latest updates: Dominic Raab says Downing Street will give ‘a proper update’ about resignation later today
Good morning. More than a year ago, after he was first appointed as Boris Johnson’s independent adviser on ministers’ interests (official title) or “ethics adviser” (media shorthand), Lord Geidt said that, if Johnson ignored his advice, he could retaliate by resigning “as a last resort”. He told MPs: “The power is there.” Last night, in a surprise move, he used it. Our overnight story about his departure is here.
Geidt’s resignation provides a fresh component to the (extraordinarily long) catalogue of evidence testifying to the ethical incontinence of the Boris Johnson administration. Regular readers will not need reminder of what else is on the list (and, besides, it would take a while just typing it up).
If the letter and the prime minister’s reply are not published, then I think people will draw their own conclusions and it won’t be favourable to the prime minister.
Reading between the lines and between all the various different reports he has produced, he [Lord Geidt] basically thinks that the Prime Minister has broken the ministerial code himself. He feels that because the only person who is the arbiter of the code is the prime minister that he does not feel able to say that.
I know No 10 will give a proper update later today and these questions will be answered.
