Four Johnson aides quit in fallout from Downing
Street parties
Policy chief Munira Mirza was first to go, followed
shortly by Dan Rosenfield, Martin Reynolds and Jack Doyle
Heather
Stewart Political editor
Thu 3 Feb
2022 21.00 GMT
Four of
Boris Johnson’s key staff have quit as the fallout from the Downing Street
party scandal continued to shake his hold on government.
Johnson’s
longstanding policy chief Munira Mirza was the first to go, using a stinging
resignation letter to accuse the prime minister of “scurrilous” behaviour when
he falsely linked Keir Starmer to the failure to bring paedophile Jimmy Savile
to justice.
Within
hours, three more of Johnson’s staff had gone – Dan Rosenfield, his chief of
staff, Martin Reynolds, his principal private secretary, and his director of
communications, Jack Doyle.
All three
have been implicated in Downing Street’s response to the lockdown parties that
are now being investigated by the Metropolitan police.
Reynolds
sent a widely shared email urging staff to “bring your own booze” to one event
on 20 May 2020.
While
Johnson was expected to clear out many of his top team in the wake of Sue
Gray’s report into the lockdown-breaking gatherings published earlier this
week, Mirza’s resignation came out of the blue.
And in a
sign of Johnson’s waning authority, this also provoked the chancellor to issue
a rare rebuke, as he also criticised the prime minister for his jibe against
the Labour leader.
Asked about
the comments at a press conference on Thursday, Sunak said: “Being honest, I
wouldn’t have said it.”
Pressed
repeatedly on whether Johnson should apologise, he said that was a matter for
the prime minister.
Sunak has
previously declined to criticise Johnson directly throughout the weeks of
revelations about lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street, though he has
acknowledged that mistakes were made.
The flurry
of resignations came at the end of an important day for the government as the
chancellor sought to explain how he hopes to avert a cost of living crisis for
millions of people affected by rising fuel bills and mortgage payments.
But the
focus once again turned to the turmoil in Downing Street when Mirza resigned.
Johnson has
repeatedly refused to apologise, after saying in a rowdy House of Commons
session on Monday that, as director of public prosecutions from 2008 to 2013,
Starmer had “spent most of his time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute
Jimmy Savile”.
In fact,
Starmer took no personal role in decisions connected to Savile’s case.
In a
strongly worded resignation letter, Mirza told Johnson: “There was no fair or
reasonable basis for that assertion. This was not the usual cut and thrust of
politics; it was an inappropriate and partisan reference to a horrendous case
of child sexual abuse.”
Mirza’s
departure was regarded at Westminster as a serious blow to Johnson, who was
under pressure to overhaul his Downing Street operation after Gray identified
failures of leadership and judgment.
It was
swiftly followed later on Thursday by the resignation of Doyle – though he
insisted his departure was unconnected with Mirza’s. A No 10 spokesperson said
Doyle had “made a huge contribution and the prime minister is immensely
grateful for the work he has done”.
Downing
Street later confirmed the departures of Rosenfield and Reynolds in a brief
statement.
“Dan
Rosenfield offered his resignation to the Prime Minister earlier today, which
has been accepted,” it said.
“Martin
Reynolds also informed the Prime Minister of his intention to stand down from
his role as Principal Private Secretary and the Prime Minister has agreed to
this.
“He has
thanked them both for their significant contribution to government and No 10,
including work on the pandemic response and economic recovery.
“They will
continue in their roles while successors are appointed, and recruitment for
both posts is underway.”
The prime
minister had earlier sought to row back from the Savile claims on Thursday,
saying “a lot of people have got very hot under the collar”.
“Let’s be
absolutely clear, I’m talking not about the leader of the opposition’s personal
record when he was director of public prosecutions and I totally understand
that he had nothing to do personally with those decisions,” Johnson said on a
visit to Blackpool.
“I was
making a point about his responsibility for the organisation as a whole. I
really do want to clarify that because it is important.”
That was
not enough to placate Mirza, however. In her resignation letter, she told him:
“You tried to clarify your position today but, despite my urging, you did not apologise
for the misleading impression you gave.”
She said
Johnson was “a better man than many of your detractors will ever understand”,
adding that it was “so desperately sad that you let yourself down by making a
scurrilous accusation against the leader of the opposition”.
A
spokesperson said: “We are very sorry Munira has left No 10 and are grateful
for her service and contribution to government.”
Johnson
moved quickly to replace Mirza, promoting Andrew Griffith to head up the No 10
policy unit as a minister in the Cabinet Office.
A wealthy
former Sky executive, Griffith lent Johnson his £9.5m townhouse as a campaign
base during his 2019 leadership bid. Now the MP for Arundel and South Downs, he
has been serving as Johnson’s parliamentary private secretary – liaising with
MPs.
Mirza,
often seen as a proponent of Downing Street’s “war on woke”, had worked with
Johnson for more than a decade, including at City Hall when he was mayor of
London. He previously identified her as one of the five most inspiring women in
his life. Her partner, Dougie Smith, is also a senior Tory adviser.
Johnson’s
former adviser Dominic Cummings claimed Mirza’s departure was “an unmistakeable
signal the bunker is collapsing and this PM is finished”. He urged ministers to
show a similar “flicker of moral courage”, and resign.
In another
sign of the pressures on Johnson from within his own party, West Midlands mayor
Andy Street, one of the most prominent Tories outside Westminster, said he was
unsure whether he could continue to support the prime minister.
“What he’s
done, very clearly, is wrong. It’s bad by any measure,” Street told
BirminghamLive. “He has apologised. He appears to me to be a man who is genuine
in that apology. You can see that from his demeanour. But what we’ve now got to
see is that this apology follows through in terms of actions, how he leads and
what is done within Downing Street to make it very, very different.
“The honest
answer is that we are waiting to see if he follows through on what he’s now
said.”
Three
Conservative MPs went public on Wednesday with their intention to submit
letters of no confidence in the prime minister. One senior Tory MP said the
departure of Mirza smacked of “the last days of Rome,” suggesting the number of
no confidence letters may now be approaching the threshold of 54 that would
trigger a no confidence vote.
If Johnson
lost such a vote, which could be held within days, his premiership would be
over.
The
Savile/Starmer smear has circulated on far right blogs, and at prime minister’s
questions on Wednesday, Starmer accused Johnson of “parroting the conspiracy
theories of violent fascists” for political gain.
Several
cabinet ministers, including Nadine Dorries and Michael Gove, have since
defended Johnson, however, with the justice secretary, Dominic Raab, calling it
part of the “cut and thrust” of parliamentary debate.
Before
prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, the Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, reminded
MPs of the importance of being truthful in the House of Commons.
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