Boris Johnson’s ethics advisor has admitted he is an “asset of the PM” rather than enjoying full independence.
Speaking before the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC), Lord Geidt was questioned on whether there was any point to his role as “Independent Advisor on the Ministerial Code”, given the Prime Minister still retains the power to block investigations.
Lord Geidt’s role is directly appointed by the Prime Minister, who retains the sole power to judge whether the rules have been broken and impose sanctions.
Labour MP John McDonnell suggested Lord Geidt’s role was “little more than a tin of whitewash.”
Lord Geidt accepted: “How can I defeat the impression that it’s a cosy, insufficiently independent relationship? It’s very hard. But I’m trying my best to work with what I’ve got.”
He described himself as an "an asset of the prime minister... rather than a free orbiting adviser."
And he indicated he had not asked to open investigations into either the PM's involvement in Partygate, or the recent leak of legal advice relating to the Northern Ireland protocol.
But he insisted changes to his role announced in May, which were accused of failing to sufficiently bolster his role, while watering down the sanctions available in the Ministerial Code were “workable”.
He said: “The changes that have been recorded are useful, they’re workable.
"Yes, they’re incremental, they don’t yet address the full scope of the Committee on Standards in Public Life’s ambitions - including…on public appointment. I don’t have the levers there.”
But he said he had done his best to discharge his duties as best he could, despite it being in “a slightly brighter glare of publicity than is usually comfortable.”
Asked directly whether there was “really any point” to his role, Lord Geidt said it was “just a statement of fact” that Mr Johnson had “potentially been within the scope of the [Ministerial] Code for quite a lot of the period I’ve been in position” - and that this had “created its own pressures.”
Lord Geidt refused to deny he considered resigning over the Prime Minister's response to being fined for attending a party in Downing Street during lockdown.
He told MPs that he had felt "frustration" and that the option of resignation was always "on the agenda".
But he said that he did not believe there was ever "a single direct proposition" in his own mind.
"I am glad that the Prime Minister was able to respond to my report and in doing so addressed aspects of the things about which I was clearly frustrated," he said. "Resignation is one of the blunt but few tools available to the adviser. I am glad that my frustrations were addressed in the way that they were."
Pressed by Mr McDonnell if he had threatened to resign after his advice was ignored, Lord Geidt said: "I haven't given you a direct answer but I don't think there was ever a single direct proposition in my own mind."
Mr McDonnell replied: "I am going to take that answer as at least it was on the agenda."
Lord Geidt said it was "reasonable" to suggest the Prime Minister being fined over partygate could be a breach of the ministerial code.
He told the Committee: "If I am to take the view of say the ordinary man or woman in the language as it were on the face of the code then I think it's reasonable that some, and indeed many people have written to me making this point, it's reasonable to say that perhaps a fixed-penalty notice and the Prime Minister paying for it may have constituted not meeting the overarching duty of the ministerial code of complying with the law."
The peer said he now believes he has the power to initiate investigations into the Prime Minister.
"I'm glad to get the new power and I'm not going to be restrained from using it where necessary but my powers were less clear in the previous period," he said.
