BORIS JOHNSON'S FORMER ETHICS ADVISER LORD GEIDT IS REPRIMANDED FOR BREAKING CONDUCT RULES AFTER LOBBYING THE MOD FOR SATELLITE FIRM

• Event came days before adviser's report into Downing Street flat redecoration  

Boris Johnson's former ethics adviser was reprimanded yesterday for lobbying the Ministry of Defence on behalf of an American satellite firm.

Lord Geidt has been ordered to apologise to the House of Lords' conduct committee for breaking strict rules that ban peers from providing parliamentary services in return for payment.

He spoke in a virtual meeting to two senior MoD officials as a paid adviser to Theia Group, which wanted to sell the Government surveillance data from space satellites.

The event in May 2021 took place while he was serving as the Independent Adviser on Ministers' Interests and just days before his report was published into the controversial redecoration of the Downing Street flat.

In a report into his conduct published yesterday, Lords sleaze watchdog Martin Jelley wrote: 'My conclusion is that Lord Geidt, by attending a meeting with Ministry of Defence officials on behalf of Theia Group Inc in return for payment, provided a parliamentary service and so breached paragraph 8(d) of the 10th edition of the Code of Conduct.

'As paragraph 21 of the Guide to the Code makes clear: "members may not, in return for payment... assist outside organisations in influencing... officials."'

But he admitted the service was 'limited to one virtual meeting' and that Lord Geidt, a former army intelligence officer, had been hired because of his 'prior experience' rather than his role in Parliament.

'In the circumstances, I do not regard this as a significant breach of the Code,' the Commissioner for Standards concluded.

Lord Geidt, a former private secretary to the late Queen, challenged the findings as 'plainly wrong'.

He said despite being appointed the PM's ethics adviser in April 2021 that he had been told he could keep advising Theia by Cabinet Secretary Simon Case.

Mr Case wrote to him: 'I do not see that there should be any problem with your continuing to engage with officials.'

Lord Geidt stressed that his appointment to the company - which went bust in 2021 - was 'entirely unconnected' with his membership of the Lords.

And he said he had only given 'opening introductory remarks lasting no more than 2-3 minutes' at the virtual meeting, which only took place following 'a chain of authorised instructions, initiated by the Cabinet Secretary'.

'I have at all times taken my obligations under the Code extremely seriously,' he insisted.

His appeal was rejected with the Conduct Committee, concluding: 'We dismiss Lord Geidt's appeal against the Commissioner's finding that he breached paragraph 8(d) of the Code and endorse the Commissioner's recommendation that he write a letter of apology to the Chair of the Conduct Committee.'

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2024-03-28T01:52:35Z dg43tfdfdgfd