Rishi Sunak commits to appointing new ethics adviser

Rishi Sunak will appoint a new independent ethics adviser, filling a gap left by Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.Downing Street confirmed on Wednesday that the new Prime Minister will soon move to appoint a new independent adviser on ministerial interests.Lord Geidt, the previous adviser on ministers’ interests, quit in June and had not been replaced when Boris Johnson announced he was standing down.Ms Truss, during her brief tenure in Downing Street, had not appointed an ethics adviser.The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said that the appointment of the new ethics adviser would be ‘done shortly’.New Cabinet Office minister Jeremy Quin also confirmed in the Commons that ‘it is absolutely the Prime Minister’s intention to appoint an independent adviser’.Under Mr Johnson’s tenure, two ethics advisers quit within two years.Veteran civil servant Sir Alex Allan quit as ethics adviser in November 2020 after Mr Johnson failed to act on a critical report on alleged bullying by Home Secretary Priti Patel.His successor, Lord Geidt, resigned in June this year after accusing Mr Johnson of proposing a ‘deliberate’ breach of the ministerial code.Lord Geidt said he had been narrowly clinging on to his role over partygate but ultimately quit after being forced into an ‘impossible and odious’ position by the then-prime minister over steel tariffs.Mr Sunak, who promised his Government would have ‘integrity’ during his first speech at Downing Street, is facing questions about the appointment of Suella Braverman as Home Secretary.Ms Truss forced Ms Braverman out after she breached the ministerial code by sending an official document to a Tory backbencher from a personal email.The Prime Minister’s spokesman declined to discuss whether Ms Braverman could be referred to the new ethics adviser, refusing to speculate on individual cases.Over the summer, Mr Sunak said that appointing an ethics adviser would be among the first things he would do as prime minister.