The resignation of a number of senior Downing Street officials showed Boris Johnson “is taking charge,” a Government minister has said.
Energy Secretary Greg Hands said the Prime Minister had promised there would be changes to No10 in his response to the release of Sue Gray’s report on lockdown parties in Whitehall on Monday.
Four senior officials announced Thursday they were leaving No. 10, including chief of staff Dan Rosenfield and chief private secretary Martin Reynolds.
“Resignations have been made, resignations have been accepted,” Mr Hands told Sky News.
“The Prime Minister was absolutely clear on Monday that there would be changes at the helm of No 10 and he has delivered that.
“The update to the Sue Gray report says there were mistakes at the forefront of the operation. This is the Prime Minister who is in charge.
“This is a broader topic than just the Sue Gray report. It’s about saying we need changes to No 10, which the Prime Minister said on Monday.”
On a hot day for the Prime Minister, his chief of staff, chief private secretary, communications director and policy chief left Downing Street in a matter of hours.
Munira Mirza, the former director of Policy Department No 10 and one of Mr Johnson’s most loyal and long-time advisers, left Parliament after she attacked the Prime Minister’s use of a “quirky” smear of Jimmy Savile against Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer had.
The departure of private secretary Martin Reynolds had been widely anticipated after he reportedly sent an email during England’s first coronavirus lockdown inviting at least 100 staff to a ‘bring your own boze’ party at No. 10 invited.
There had also been questions about the future of Chief of Staff Dan Rosenfield after Sue Gray’s abridged report on alleged Covid rulebreaking criticized “failures of leadership” at the top of the government.
Communications chief Jack Doyle gave a resignation speech to No10 staff, according to the Daily Mail – for whom he used to work – telling them the turbulent past few weeks had “taken a terrible toll on my family life”, as he always intended to stress, only stay in the role for two years.
The former journalist is said to have attended at least two of the 12 lockdown busting events across Downing Street and across Government that are being investigated by the Metropolitan Police, with officers continuing to follow Ms Gray’s investigation.
Martin Reynolds and Dan Rosenfield, pictured back row, have left Downing Street (Image: Jeremy Selwyn/Evening Standard/PA)
But it was Ms Mirza’s stinging resignation letter that is likely seen as most damaging to Mr Johnson, who had previously listed her as one of the five women who most influenced and inspired him.
In a letter from The Spectator magazine, Ms Mirza, who first advised Mr Johnson as London mayor more than a decade ago, said she had urged her boss to apologize for giving a “misleading impression” about Sir Keir’s role in the prosecutor’s office (CPS) failure to prosecute Savile.
She accused the Prime Minister of making an “inappropriate and partisan reference to a horrific case of child sexual abuse” and said he had “let himself down”.
Mr Johnson, who said he was “sorry to lose his close confidante”, withdrew the debunked claim that the opposition leader was instrumental in not prosecuting Savile as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), but paused in order asked to apologize to Mrs Mirza.
Jack Doyle delivered a resignation speech to staff at No. 10 (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
Responding to the Gray report’s initial release, the PM told MPs he was planning to overhaul the facility at No10 after months of controversy over ‘Partygate’.
The Daily Mail suggested the sudden departures of Mr Reynolds and Mr Rosenfield were part of a shake-up planned for next week but accelerated following the departure of Ms Mirza.
The high-profile departures are putting new pressure on the prime minister, who is fighting to remain in office as 13 Conservative MPs have publicly called for his resignation over the way he has dealt with party claims.
More are believed to have done so privately, but the number of letters to the chairman of the 1922 backbench Tories’ committee has not yet reached the 54 needed to trigger a vote of no confidence.