Boris Johnson has been accused of deliberately attempting to break the ministerial code, in a scathing resignation letter published by his former ethics adviser this afternoon.
Lord Geidt last night became the second ethics adviser to quit during the Prime Minister’s three years in office.
The peer said he only narrowly believed he could continue in the role after the partygate scandal but that he could not continue after a new request.
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He wrote to the Prime Minister: “This week, however, I was tasked to offer a view about the Government’s intention to consider measures which risk a deliberate and purposeful breach of the ministerial code.
“This request has placed me in an impossible and odious position.”
He said the idea that the Prime Minister “might to any degree be in the business of deliberately breaching his own code is an affront”.
“A deliberate breach, or even an intention to do so, would be to suspend the provisions of the code to suit a political end. This would make a mockery not only of respect for the code but licence the suspension of its provisions in governing the conduct of Her Majesty’s ministers.
“I can have no part in this.”
The request to which Lord Geidt refers is believed to be related to proposed protections for the UK steel industry, which could breach World Trade Organisation rules and as a result the ministerial code.
Prior to the publication of the letter, Newcastle MP Chi Onwurah grilled ministers over the resignation.
Speaking in the Commons she said: "After many years working in both public and private sector, in many countries around the world, I cannot think of a single instance where the the behaviour of someone in a leadership position obliged the person responsible for giving ethical or standards advice to resign twice in succession and yet that person still remained in place.
"Does the minister recognise that my constituents will conclude that the Prime Minister finds it hard to maintain a working relationship with ethical advice?
"How many resignations of ethical advisers will it take before the Prime Minister resigns?'
Cabinet Office Minister Michael Ellis responded: "I'd venture to suggest her constituents will find it surprising that Labour focuses constantly on personalities and not policies."
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