Justice Minister Lord Wolfson resigns over ‘partygate’

Justice minister Lord David Wolfson has resigned from the role one day after Boris Johnson was fined for breaking Covid rules saying the Prime Minister’s actions were “inconsistent with the rule of law”.

The Liverpool-born QC, who was educated at the city’s King David High School, sent a letter to the PM in which he criticised the “official response” to “repeated rule-breaking”.

He said he had “no option” other than to resign, given his “ministerial and professional obligations” in this area.

The lawyer added it was wrong “that conduct to pass with constitutional impunity, especially when many in society complied with the rules at great personal cost, and others were fined or prosecuted for similar, and sometimes apparently more trivial, offences”.

Appointed a life peer and junior justice minister in December 2020, Wolfson that he had “no option other than to tend my resignation”.

He also shared his letter to the PM on Twitter on Wednesday.

Last month had hit out at claims that the government’s adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism infringes on its commitment to free speech.