Justice secretary says Johnson only ‘unintentionally’ broke law as ethics adviser reportedly threatens to quit
Boris Johnson’s deputy has insisted the prime minister did not breach the ministerial code even though he was fined by police for attending a No 10 party in lockdown, as the government’s ethics chief reportedly threatened to quit over the scandal.
He said this did not amount to a breach of the ministerial code, despite the prime minister’s ethics chief, Lord Geidt, querying whether it had been.whether Johnson had breached the code. In response, the prime minister made clear he did not believe the code had been broken. The row with Geidt is the latest headache for the prime minister as he faces a wave of discontent from his MPs over the fixed-penalty notice. More than 40 Tory MPs have publicly questioned Johnson’s fitness to hold office, including 18 who are known to have sent letters to Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers, to formally seek aThe remainder have openly called for the prime minister to resign or said they had lost faith in his leadership.
“In relation to the single fixed-penalty notice, it had been an unintentional breach of the law and inadvertent in the sense that he turned up to the gathering without having realised it would be in breach of the relevant regulations.Raab did not deny that Geidt had threatened to quit, saying he was “not privy” to conversations about it.