The Conservative MP Andrew Bowie has announced he will resign as a vice-chair of the party in the wake of the sleaze scandal engulfing Boris Johnson.
Bowie said he requested to step down but agreed to stay in post until a successor has been appointed. He believed he could not continue to defend the government after the prime minister’s botched bid to save a colleague from suspension and overhaul the standards system.
The fallout is continuing and another Tory MP, Geoffrey Cox, is also in the spotlight and has been referred to the commissioner by Labour for appearing to conduct legal work from his Commons office.
Bowie’s resignation is significant as he was a key adviser to Theresa May when she was prime minister, serving as her parliamentary private secretary.
He became the Conservative vice-chair for youth and the UK union in August 2019, a few months after Johnson became prime minister.
Bowie was first elected in 2017 to represent West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine in the Commons. He has a wafer-thin majority of 843 votes.
Another Conservative aide, Angela Richardson, temporarily lost her job for voting against the government-backed bid to reform the standards system, but got her job back when Johnson U-turned and ditched the plans.
