Inside Politics: Ethics meltdown

Boris Johnson planning not to replace outgoing ethics adviser as Bank of England warns inflation to rise to 11 per cent, writes Matt Mathers

Friday 17 June 2022 08:32 BST

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Hot, hot, hot. Forecasters say Friday will be the warmest day of the year so far, as the mercury rockets towards 34C in the south and east of England. Meanwhile, critics are turning their fire on Boris Johnson, who is planning not to replace his outgoing ethics adviser.

Inside the bubble

Parliament is not sitting.

Daily Briefing

Geidt latest

The fallout from Lord Christopher Geidt’s resignation continues today as Downing Street plans to not bother replacing the outgoing ethics adviser. Boris Johnson, it appears, is keen not to make it a hat-trick of walk-outs. What could he possibly be worried about?

No 10 eventually published Geidt’s resignation letter in full yesterday. In it, the Queen’s former permanent secretary referenced Partygate but insisted that it was, in fact, a plan by the government to introduce subsidies for the UK’s steel sector, in breach of the UK’s “obligations” to the World Trade Organisation (it is not clear how this would be a breach of the ministerial code by Johnson), that was the final straw – reasoning most Westminster watchers had trouble believing in the aftermath of mass Covid law-breaking at the heart of government during lockdown and Wallpapergate.

The Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL) issued a stern warning to the PM not to go ahead with proposals to replace the high-profile adviser with an anonymous committee of officials to oversee the ministerial code of conduct. Scrapping the adviser’s post – created by Tony Blair in 2006 in response to a recommendation from the sleaze watchdog – would be “a backwards step” which would “risk further damage to public perceptions of standards”, said CSPL chair Lord Evans.

Johnson’s official spokesperson confirmed that he plans to “take time” to consider whether to appoint a replacement for Geidt, or to find a different way of fulfilling the function of scrutinising ministerial behaviour, with the PM himself suggesting that the “increasingly public role” of the ethics adviser would be a “burden” on anyone taking up the job.

Out on the broadcast round earlier John Penrose, the Tory MP and Johnson’s former corruption tsar, who recently quit saying that it was “pretty clear” that the PM had broken the ministerial code on Partygate, said it was “important” that some sort successor is found for Geidt.

When asked on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme if Geidt’s report on Wallpapergate should still be published, he said: “I don’t know how complete it is [the report]...but I think the important thing with all these issues is that they just don’t go away if you ignore them. Ethics and integrity doesn’t work like that. And therefore, they [the government] will have to put this stuff to bed.”

Inflation nation

There were more dire updates on the economy yesterday as the Bank of England raised interest rates a further 0.25 per cent to 1.25 per cent and warned that inflation could hit 11 per cent by October. Ah well, at least the weather is nice.

The Bank’s monetary policy committee announced the decision in a bid to temper rising prices and tackle poor economic growth. It is the fifth rise in a row and takes the base interest rate to its highest rate in 13 years.

And Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, warned in a speech yesterday that while the government had a duty to help the poorest in society it would not be possible to help everyone, suggesting there will be no more financial assistance for the squeezed middle.

Both Gove and Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, also repeated warnings that there will be no tax cuts until the financial outlook improves, in a blow to backbench Tory MPs and some cabinet ministers calling for the burden to be reduced.

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On the record

“The idea that a prime minister might to any degree be in the business of deliberately breaching his own Code is an affront.”

Lord Geidt’s resignation letter.

From the Twitterati

“This Geidt/TRA thing smells like total bullshit. If the claim is that he quit because he was asked if the Govt could breach an international agreement (WTO rules on extending steel safeguards when there is no economic argument for it) then...What?”