Johnson's ethics adviser says UK PM has put him in 'odious' position

"A deliberate breach, or even an intention to do so, would be to suspend the provisions of the code to suit a political end," Geidt said in his letter to the PM. "I can have no part in this."

Boris Johnson’s ethics adviser said he resigned because the prime minister had placed him in an “impossible and odious position” by considering a deliberate breach of the UK’s ministerial code.
 

In his resignation letter, Christopher Geidt didn’t give details about the issue Johnson had asked him to advise upon. In his reply to Geidt, the prime minister alluded to a planned decisions on trade tariffs that “might be seen to conflict with our obligations under the WTO,” again without giving details.

“A deliberate breach, or even an intention to do so, would be to suspend the provisions of the code to suit a political end,” Geidt said in his letter to the prime minister. “I can have no part in this.”

The exchange of letters raises questions about what exactly the UK is planning on trade, but also why it was this specific issue that led Geidt to conclude his position was untenable. In a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday, the ethics adviser lamented that Johnson’s various scandals had led to a large workload and that the option of resigning was always “on the agenda.”

Yet Geidt also gave no hint that he was about to do so. During the hearing, he said it was “reasonable” to say Johnson may have breached the ministerial code by taking part in a rule-breaking party in Downing Street during the Covid-19 pandemic that led to the premier being fined by police. 

His performance was widely criticized and ridiculed in the British media, and the government announced his resignation late Wednesday.

For Johnson, the events put the spotlight firmly back on Johnson’s conduct, and threatens to stymie his efforts to move on from the Partygate saga that saw him become the first sitting prime minister found to have broken the law.

Police fined Johnson for attending a gathering for his birthday in Downing Street in June 2020, in breach of the Covid lockdown rules his own government brought in. Last week, the premier vowed to “bash on” after narrowly winning a vote on his leadership, in which 41% of Tory MPs opposed him. 

Geidt is the second Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests to quit under Johnson in less than two years. The former holder of the office, Alex Allan, resigned in 2020 after Johnson refused to rule that Home Secretary Priti Patel had breached the ministerial code -- despite Allan concluding Patel had “not consistently met the high standards expected of her.”

“For the prime minister to lose one adviser of ministers’ interest may be regarded as misfortune, but to lose two looks like carelessness,” Tory MP William Wragg, a longstanding critic of Johnson, told the House of Commons, quoting from Oscar Wilde. 

Opposition Labour MP Fleur Anderson said the resignation of a second ethics adviser to the prime minister is a “badge of shame” for the government.