No 10 under pressure to reveal reasons behind ethics adviser's departure

BORIS JOHNSON was today facing a growing storm over the resignation of his ethics watchdog as the partygate controversy reignited in Westminster.

- David Bond and Nicholas Cecil

Lord Geidt quit as the Prime Minister's adviser on ministerial standards last night after months of questions over parties in Downing Street and Mr Johnson's integrity.

The peer released a short statement last night, but with No 10 under pressure to reveal the full reasons for his exit, Paymaster General Michael Ellis this morning said that the Government would publish Lord Geidt's letter of resignation, as well as the PM's response.

Labour MP Chris Bryant, chair of the Commons Standards Committee, who had earlier called on the Government to publish Lord Geidt's letter, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Downing Street does this all the time. It says there is no more to be seen and then subsequently we discover there was an incriminating letter. Reading between the lines and between all the various different reports he has produced, he (Lord Geidt) basically thinks that the Prime Minister has broken the ministerial code himself."