DOWNING Street may not appoint a new ethics adviser following Lord Geidt’s shock exit on Wednesday night.
The peer - who lasted 16 months in the post - was the second independent adviser on ministers’ interests appointed by Boris Johnson to have resigned in protest.
At a briefing for journalists in Westminster, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman refused to confirm if the Tory leader would now try to appoint his third ethics adviser in three years.
He said that Lord Geidt had raised issues about the role and therefore Mr Johnson will "carefully consider" those points before taking any steps to appoint a replacement.
Asked if it was possible that the peer would not be replaced, the spokesperson replied: “We have not made a final decision on how best to carry out that function, whether it relates to a specific individual or not, particularly given some of the issues that have been raised recently the Prime Minister alludes to in his letter.
“So he will carefully consider that before setting out next steps.”
The spokesman said that Mr Johnson was committed to "rigorous oversight and scrutiny of ministerial interests."
"[The role] could continue as it was before, but he hasn’t made a final decision," the spokesman added.
The spokesman denied efforts to find a replacement were being put on hold due to concerns that nobody would take the job.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel