UK justice minister quits over Johnson’s ‘partygate’ scandal

Justice minister David Wolfson, a peer in the U.K.’s unelected upper House of Lords, cited the “repeated rule-breaking” and “breaches of the criminal law” in Downing Street as his reason for quitting.

Boris Johnson suffered the first ministerial resignation from his British government since he and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, as well as dozens of officials, were fined for breaking the pandemic laws.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. (Reuters)

Justice minister David Wolfson, a peer in the U.K.’s unelected upper House of Lords, cited the “repeated rule-breaking” and “breaches of the criminal law” in Downing Street as his reason for quitting.

Johnson Set to Survive ‘Partygate’ as Tories Shrug Off Fine

“The scale, context and nature of those breaches mean that it would be inconsistent with the rule of law for that conduct to pass with constitutional impunity,” Wolfson said in a letter to Johnson published on Wednesday.

It’s the most significant sign of dissent within Johnson’s ruling Conservatives since the prime minister and Sunak were fined on Tuesday by police for attending a gathering on the prime minister’s birthday in June 2020, in breach of the Covid laws their government passed.

Earlier on Wednesday, Nigel Mills became the first Tory Member of Parliament to call for the premier to quit in the wake of his being penalized, telling the Press Association that Johnson’s position was “impossible.”