System to enforce ministerial code under review as ethics adviser resigns over Partygate and steel tariffs row
Allan said he was “very sad” that his successor had also felt forced to quit. “I just felt really upset that Christopher Geidt, who is a very honourable man, had been put in a position where he felt he had no option but to resign.
William Wragg, the Conservative chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee ,said: “For the prime minister to lose one adviser on ministers’ interests may be regarded as misfortune, but to lose two looks like carelessness.” Johnson recently published a letter, at the urging of Geidt, explaining why he did not think he had broken the code. His reasoning included the fact that he had not believed he was breaking Covid rules at the time. Sunak said he was “sad to see what Lord Geidt has written, and sorry to see him go”.
Rebel Tory MPs hoping to drum up support for a future vote of no confidence in Johnson said Geidt’s abrupt departure would not necessarily help their cause. One former minister said Geidt’s rationale was “slightly obscure” despite the strong language in his letter. Peter Holmes, of the UK Trade Policy Observatory at Sussex University, said: “I’m completely puzzled. Almost invariably when you introduce anti-dumping measures, you claim that what you’re doing is consistent with the WTO. So to ask Geidt’s opinion on an anti-dumping duty, it’s totally bizarre. He has no expertise in this area. You would ask Suella Braverman [the attorney general] whether it’s legal.
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