Government to make statement today on resignation of ethics adviser Lord Geidt, says deputy PM Raab
The government will make a statement later today about the sudden resignation of ethics adviser Lord Geidt, following reports he was about to extend his role for another six months.
Deputy prime minister Dominic Raab told BBC Breakfast he is expecting a “further update” from the government, but declined to confirm if Boris Johnson himself would be giving it.
This comes after Number 10’s ethics adviser Lord Christopher Geidt quit his role last night, just a day after telling a Westminster committee he almost resigned over partygate.
Raab said he understood Lord Geidt “was engaged this week in talking about how he was going to stay on for the six months” in his role/
However, he said there was a “particular issue” which was “commercially sensitive” and that was in the “national interest which he was asked to advise on”, but Raab “cannot say if that’s the issue” that led to the resignation.
When asked about Lord Geidt’s letter to the prime minister explaining why he resigned, Raab said “I didn’t know there was a letter, I don’t know what’s in it.”
Pushed on whether the public should be told why he resigned, the deputy PM said it’s “partly up to him” and that it “wasn’t right for me to speculate” about the cause of it.
Geidt told parliament’s Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) that he considered quitting over the Number 10 partygate scandal.
He said he was “clearly frustrated” when Johnson was handed a Covid fine by police and that resigning was “always on the agenda”.
It was widely commented that Geidt was very careful with his words in the committee meeting and appeared to be under great strain.
Raab responded to claims about Partygate on BBC News saying the PM had made it clear “he inadvertently was in breach of the rules, because he didn’t deliberately intend to go to this social gathering because he was attending a work event”.
He also defended civil servants whose job can be “quite bruising” and who are not “used to that level of scrutiny” from the press like politicians.