Resignation of second ethics adviser a “badge of shame” for PM, Labour says

Labour’s Fleur Anderson has said the resignation of two of Boris Johnson’s ethics advisers in two years is a “badge of shame” after the government confirmed Lord Geidt’s resignation letter would be published in full.

Addressing the Commons this afternoon, government minister Michael Ellis announced that Geidt’s letter and the Prime Minister’s reply would be released “shortly”. Both letters have now been published.

The shadow paymaster general said she welcomed that the letter would be released, but noted that it had “taken asking an urgent question to get it”. She described the Cabinet Office’s prior failure to publish the letter as “unprecedented”.

Anderson told MPs: “Clearly the new arrangements for the independent adviser are not workable. And that’s why he’s had to resign.” She called for the vacancy to be filled “urgently” but also stressed the need to reform the role as recommended by the Committee on Standards in Public Life.

She said: “To lose one ethics adviser is really an embarrassment. But to lose two in two years, just days after the Prime Minister’s own anti-corruption tsar walked out on him, well it’s becoming a bit of a pattern, Mr Speaker. A pattern of degrading the principles of our democracy.”

Anderson asked Ellis to confirm whether the ongoing investigations launched by Geidt would now be completed. She also requested details of the “commercially sensitive matter in the national interest” on which the government said Geidt had been asked to advise.

Following the announcement of Geidt’s resignation, a government spokesperson said the official had been asked to “provide advice on a commercially sensitive matter in the national interest, which has previously had cross-party support”. The spokesperson added: “No decision had been taken pending that advice.”

“When will a replacement be appointed, and can he assure us there won’t be another five-month gap. Although it will be a hard position to recruit for, because it’s been clearly shown to be an unworkable position,” she added.

In his letter to the Prime Minister, Geidt said he was asked this week to advise on the government’s intention to consider “measures which risk a deliberate and purposeful breach of the ministerial code”. The former ethics adviser declared that the request had placed him “in an impossible and odious position”.

The letter continued: “The idea that a Prime Minister might to any degree be in the business of deliberately breaching his own code is an affront. A deliberate breach, or even an intention to do so, would be to suspend the provisions of the code to suit a political end.

“This would make a mockery not only of respect for the code but licence the suspension of its provisions in governing the conduct of Her Majesty’s ministers. I can have no part in this.”

Responding to the letter’s publication, Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “Lord Geidt walked out because of the odious behaviour of Boris Johnson’s Downing Street.

“This Prime Minister has, in his own adviser’s words, made a mockery of the ministerial code. He has now followed both his predecessor and the anti-corruption tsar out of the door in disgust.

“There are now no ethics left in this Downing Street regime propped up in office by a Conservative Party mired in sleaze and totally unable to tackle the cost-of-living crisis facing the British people.

“The government must not only appoint a new watchdog but back Labour’s plan to restore standards. This Prime Minister has debased standards and rigged the rules for far too long. It is tim​e for the Conservatives to do the right thing and remove him from office.”

Geidt’s resignation follows his appearance in front of the Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee on Tuesday. During the evidence session, he said it was “reasonable” to suggest that the Prime Minister may have breached the ministerial code when he was fined over ‘partygate’.

His predecessor as ethics adviser, Sir Alex Allan, also resigned back in 2020, after being overruled by Johnson over a report into allegations of bullying made against Priti Patel.