Europe 1 with AFP 3:01 p.m., June 16, 2022

Boris Johnson's adviser in charge of ethics and compliance with the ministerial code, Christopher Geidt, announced his resignation amid "partygate".

A departure regretted Thursday by the British Prime Minister, who has become very unpopular in recent months and subjected to a vote of no confidence from his party following the affair.

Boris Johnson's adviser in charge of ethics and compliance with the ministerial code resigned amid "partygate", a "surprise" departure regretted Thursday by the Prime Minister, whose authority has been shaken by scandals.

The conservative leader, who thus suffered a new setback, said he was "sorry" to have received this letter of resignation, expressing his "surprise" in a letter sent Thursday to Christopher Geidt.

Put in "an impossible position"

The latter explains in his missive that he thought he could continue his role after the “partygate” scandal, these parties in Downing Street during the confinements which earned Boris Johnson a fine.

But he finally decided to resign after being put in an "impossible position" by a new request.

“I have been instructed to give an opinion on the government's intention to consider measures which risk a willful and willful violation of the ministerial code. This request has placed me in an impossible and odious position,” he writes. , without giving further details.

He said the idea that the prime minister 'could in any way deliberately breach his own code is an affront'.

Boris Johnson replied that he was "seeking his advice before any decision was taken".

Boris Johnson has become very unpopular

Christopher Geidt is the second ministerial ethics adviser to resign in three years, after Alex Allan.

The latter had slammed the door in 2020 after Boris Johnson refused to accept his conclusions on the accusations of harassment against the Minister of the Interior Priti Patel.

The resignation of Christopher Geidt, a former diplomat who was also Queen Elizabeth II's private secretary for ten years, is a new disavowal for Boris Johnson, recently escaped from a vote of no confidence which saw more than 40% of Tory MPs try to oust him.

Even if he retained his post and cannot be targeted by another motion of no confidence for a year, the Prime Minister, who has become very unpopular two and a half years after his electoral triumph, has seen his authority undermined by the magnitude of the slingshot.