Inside Politics: Geidt out of it

Boris Johnson’s top ethics adviser quits as fall out from Rwanda plan rumbles on, writes Matt Mathers

Thursday 16 June 2022 10:08 BST

(PA)

It has been a hard day’s night for Boris Johnson, whose ethics adviser Lord Christopher Geidt resigned in what looks like a protest at the PM’s handling of Partygate. Elsewhere, the row over the government’s controversial Rwanda plan rumbles on. No 10 will be working like dogs today to manage the fall out from both.

Inside the bubble

Commons action gets underway at 9.30am with international trade questions, followed by any urgent question and the business statement. The main business is a debate on fifth anniversary of the Grenfell fire and another on short-term letting. Tory MP Andrea Leadsom has a Westminster Hall debate on Infant Mental Health Week at 3pm.

Daily Briefing

Hard day’s Geidt

Boris Johnson is once again under pressure after his top ethics adviser quit his job. Lord Christopher Geidt, the independent adviser on ministers’ interests, said that he felt it was “right” to resign from advising the prime minister, in a statement published by Downing Street that threatens the record for the shortest ever Whitehall resignation letter. It came to just 21 words, nine of which were taken up by “with regret”, “I am resigning” and Geidt’s job title (see below for the statement in all its glory).

Downing Street is so far refusing to publish an exchange of letters between the PM and Geidt (it remains to be seen whether that position will last until the end of the day). And there is no specific reason given as to why he walked out last night. But it doesn’t take a detective to work the reasons: Geidt, handpicked by Johnson himself, has been in conflict with the PM over two scandals – Wallpapergate and more recently Partygate.

In his annual report published at the end of last month, Geidt said that Johnson may have broken the ministerial code (potentially a resigning matter) after receiving a fine for attending an illegal gathering in the Cabinet Room during lockdown. Johnson, the ultimate arbiter on matters relating to the ministerial code, has blocked Geidt from investigating. Geidt reiterated his position during an awkward grilling by MPs on Tuesday at the public administration and constitutional affairs committee, which appears to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.

How damaging is his resignation for Johnson? That Geidt is the second of his ethics advisers to resign in the space of just a few years perhaps tells a story of its own. No other holder of the post, under previous PMs, has felt the need to quit. The story splashes several major news outlets this morning, including some of Johnson’s favourites (special mention to Metro’s clever take (‘The Only Way is Ethics) putting Partygate back into the headlines at a time when the sorry saga had begun to fade out of the consciousness of rebel Tory MPs, the media and the public more broadly.

Allies of the PM will no doubt try to pass off Geidt’s resignation as a non-event. And Dominic Raab, the deputy PM and justice secretary, out on the broadcast round earlier, insisted that the government acts ethically. When asked whether he believed the current government operates with integrity, he told Sky News: “Yes, I do. I think we’re doing our best for the country. I think you’ve seen that through the pandemic with the vaccine rollout, I think you’ve seen it with getting the economy back up and running. “I think you’ve seen the moral leadership the prime minister has shown on Ukraine. Do we make mistakes? Look, it happens, we’re human, we’re fallible.”

There is unlikely to be another wave of MPs calling for the PM to go. But the fact that the man who previously worked for the Queen, described as one of the most honourable in Whitehall, feels he can no longer serve our PM raises yet more difficult questions about morality and ethics in Johnson’s government, those associated with it and by extension the Tory Party, which used to pride itself on law and order.

Rwanda plane horror

If you read anything on the government’s controversial plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda today then make sure it is this special report by May Bulman, our social affairs correspondent and Bel Trew, our international correspondent, who tell the harrowing stories of those who were due to be on the first plane Kigali.

Zoran, a 25-year-old Kurdish man, strapped into a restraining harness “like a dog”, was one of the few asylum seekers to be taken on to the controversial deportation flight before it was grounded at the last minute after European judges intervened on Tuesday night.

“I felt like I was going to die,” says Zoran. “It felt like nothing I have ever gone through before.” He says he begged security guards not to force him on to the aircraft. In audio of a phone call he managed to make to a friend, Zoran can be heard screaming in pain. He says others were shouting too. Read the full report here.

The row over the policy, which has sparked outrage among many, is rumbling on as Priti Patel, the home secretary, vows to press ahead with the deportation flights despite concerns over their cost and legality.

She came under fire in the Commons yesterday and was accused of wasting millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on a political stunt, after the plane was grounded.

The aborted flight to the east African country is believed to have cost up to £500,000, on top of an upfront payment of £120m paid to the government in Kigali as part of a “migration and economic development partnership” signed by the home secretary in April.

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On the record

“With regret, I feel that it is right that I am resigning from my post as Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests.”

Boris Johnson’s ethics adviser Lord Geidt announces his resignation.

From the Twitterati

“Unusual that No 10 hasn’t released the exchange of letters between Lord Geidt and the PM that usually accompanies such resignations. If you’re in a position to leak it, please feel free.”