UK foreign secretary sacks top advisor for her remarks on PM Johnson
Liz Truss file photo
The United Kingdom foreign secretaryLiz Truss ousts top adviser, Baroness Morrissey, a pro-Brexit banker, who told a radio show she would prefer it if Boris Johnson quit over the Partygate scandal. Morrissey resigned as the office’s lead non-executive director after Foreign Secretary Liz Truss made it clear that she would sack her.
Morrisseystepped down following talks with the department’s permanent secretary Sir Philip Barton. Sources said the Foreign Secretary believed her comments made the job ‘untenable’.
The 55-year-old bankerwas ennobled by Mr Johnson two years ago, but yesterday she told LBC radio that the Prime Minister was ‘just in the wrong job’.
Morrisseysaid: ‘Wavering MPs when they saw the booing of the Prime Minister outside St Paul’s (at the Platinum Jubilee thanksgiving service), they would see that he had actually become a liability rather than an asset.
‘I would rather he didn’t (carry on as Prime Minister)... I don’t see any contrition. He said he would bash on, that’s not what we want to hear. Tax cuts one minute after we’ve just raised them, that’s not going to help,’ she added.
Miss Truss is believed to have instructed Sir Philip to sack Baroness Morrissey in the meeting, but she offered her resignation.
A source close to the Foreign Secretary said: ‘Liz instructed Philip Barton to sack Helena. She thought the comments were outrageous and made her position untenable.’
Morrisseyran Newton Investment Management for 15 years and held a senior role at Legal and General, managing assets of almost £ 6 billion.
Last year, Mr Johnson faced calls to sack her after Morrisseyput up a tweet which appeared to deny the extent of the Covid pandemic. She wrote: ‘The data shows we are NOT in a pandemic. If people were dropping dead in the street we would notice and not go to M&S and have all those football matches.’
In an apparent reference to the Chinese Communist Party, she added: ‘CCP fake videos started this. It is ridiculous.’
Meanwhile, nine Tory frontbenchers have still failed to voice their loyalty after Monday’s no-confidence vote. Rumours of a snap reshuffle to shore up support for the PM have so far failed to materialise.
[with inputs from agencies]
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