Boris Johnson has been dealt a huge Partygate blow with the resignation of his independent adviser on Ministerial Interests.
Lord Geidt, whose advice to the Prime Minister was humiliatingly ignored by Boris Johnson, left after he admitted he could not effectively act as an independent judge on the Prime Minister's behaviour.
Geidt was grilled by MPs earlier this week about whether the the Tory leader broke the ministerial code when he was fined over Partygate.
He struggled to give MPs an account of why he could continue to do his job and would not give a straight answer on whether the fines received by Boris Johnson for lockdown breaches were a breach of the ministerial code.
Geidt dramatically quit this evening in a statement issued on the government website.
Geidt said: “With regret, I feel that it is right that I am resigning from my post as independent adviser on ministers’ interests.”
He is the second independent adviser Johnson has lost. Alex Allan quit after the Prime Minister ignored his finding that Priti Patel had bullied civil servants.
Angela Rayner MP, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, said : “The Prime Minister has now driven both of his own handpicked ethics advisers to resign in despair. If even they can’t defend his conduct in office, how can anyone believe he is fit to govern?
“Yet he remains propped up in office by a Conservative party that is mired in sleaze and totally unable to tackle the cost of living crisis facing the British people.
“The person who should be leaving Number Ten tonight is Boris Johnson himself. Just how long does the country have to wait before Tory MPs finally do the right thing?”
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