Johnson accused of rule-breaking

Boris Johnson appears to have broken rules governing jobs for ex-ministers by not seeking approval to restart his £250,000 newspaper column after quitting as foreign secretary.

The advisory committee on business appointments (Acoba) said it had not been contacted by Mr Johnson after he stepped down over the Prime Minister’s Brexit plan.

The ministerial code states that ex-ministers must refer any new jobs to Acoba before accepting them, but Mr Johnson returned to the Daily Telegraph yesterday, a week after sensationally quitting government.

In his first column for the paper since he was appointed foreign secretary in July 2016, he appealed for people to take a more positive view of Britain’s prospects outside the EU and said he would resist “for now” the temptation “to bang on about Brexit”.

A spokeswoman for Acoba said: “We did not receive an application. Ministers are written to when they leave office to remind them of their responsibility to make an application to us.”

Acoba’s website states: “Former ministers are expected to refrain from drawing on any privileged information which was available to them when a minister.

“They will normally be asked to observe a two-year ban on lobbying government on behalf of their new employer or clients.

“Former cabinet ministers will normally be subject to a three-month waiting period from their last day in office before taking up any outside employment.” The lobbying ban was applied to former chancellor George Osborne after he took over as editor of the Evening Standard in May 2017.

But Acoba has no power to take any further action and has been branded toothless by MPS. Mr Johnson ended his newspaper contract following his appointment to the Cabinet in 2016.