Another aide has reportedly left Number 10, taking the total number of departures in less than 24 hours to five.
Number 10 Policy Unit member Elena Narozanski is the latest aide to leave Boris Johnson’s Downing Street operation amid the continuing fallout from the partygate allegations, Conservative Home reports.
Her departure comes after Number 10 revealed Dan Rosenfield, the prime minister’s chief of staff, and Martin Reynolds, Mr Johnson’s principal private secretary, are leaving their roles.
Two other key advisers to Mr Johnson – press chief Jack Doyle and policy chief Munira Mirza – have also resigned.
Speaking to Sky News energy minister Greg Hands claimed the departures were evidence of the PM “taking charge”.
Asked what is going in Downing Street, he said: “Resignations have been made, resignations have been accepted.
Mr Hands said the departure of Ms Mirza was different from the other resignations.
In her resignation letter, she criticised PM’s “scurrilous” use of a discredited claim against Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer that he failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile when he was director of public prosecutions.
“She made clear her reasons for her resignation. The prime minister was equally clear that he disagreed with her,” Mr Hands said.
Speaking in the Commons on Monday in the wake of the release of a partial version of Sue Gray’s report, the PM promised a shakeup of his Number 10 operation.
The report said Downing Street lockdown gatherings represented a “serious failure” and were “difficult to justify”.
Mr Johnson told MPs he was making changes to the way Downing Street and the Cabinet Office are run “so that we can get on with the job that I was elected to do and the job that this government was elected to do”.