BoJo's Anti-Corruption Tsar Resigns as PM Faces No-Confidence Vote

John Penrose was the first government official to resign after the chairman of the powerful 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers announced early on Monday morning that the threshold of letter calling for a no-confidence vote in the PM had been reached.

The British government's corruption Tsar has resigned ahead of this evening's no-confidence vote in Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Governmental 'anti-corruption champion' John Penrose tweeted his resignation letter on Monday morning, accusing Johnson of breaking the Ministerial Code of conduct with his "failure of leadership" over the 'Partygate' affair.

He is the first government official to quit since backbench 1922 Committee Chairman Sir Graham Brady announced the ballot of Tory MPs early on Monday morning.

"I’m sorry to have to resign as the PM’s Anti-Corruption Tsar but, after his reply last week about the Ministerial Code, it’s pretty clear he has broken it," Penrose wrote. "That’s a resigning matter for me, and it should be for the PM too."

While the ballot of Conservative Party MPs is secret, it is customary for those with government jobs to resign before opposing the sitting PM.

But Penrose's tweet will be seen as a clear public attack on Johnson, designed to pressure others to vote against him.

Penrose cited senior civil servant Sue Gray's final report into office partying by Downing Street staff during the first two COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. Johnson himself was handed a £50 fine, along with Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, over a surprise birthday party his wife Carrie threw for him in the Cabinet Room in June 2020.

Gray wrote that there had been "failures of leadership and judgment" at Number 10 which fostered a "culture" of workplace drinking and socialising.

"The only fair conclusion to draw from the Sue Gray Report is that you have breached a fundamental principle of the Ministerial Code — a clear resigning matter," Penrose wrote in his letter, pointing out that "leadership" was the seventh of the "Nolan Principles of Public Life" at the heart of the Ministerial Code.

But Penrose also praised Johnson for his anti-corruption strategy — including the seizure of Russian businessmen's property since the conflict in Ukraine in February — and for delivering on Brexit, setting the anti-grift chief apart from the group of revanchist Remainers leading the charge against the PM.

The result of the no-confidence vote is expected around 8pm on Monday evening.