No action against Boris Johnson after job rules breach

No action will be taken against Boris Johnson over his "clear breach" of rules governing jobs for ex-ministers, the government has said.

The ex-PM told the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) of his Daily Mail columnist job 30 minutes before it went public.

The deputy prime minister acknowledged Mr Johnson had broken the rules.

In the wake of the case, government said it will ease restrictions on ex-ministers writing books and journalism.

In a letter, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said the Cabinet Office had accepted Acoba's assessment that "risks surrounding media appointments are limited".

"I therefore also accept that it would be disproportionate to undertake further action in these circumstances other than the public exchange of such correspondence (noting that there was a breach)," he said.

Mr Johnson was accused of "a clear and unambiguous breach of the government's rules and requirements of the Ministerial Code" after he took his new role at the Daily Mail.

Lord Pickles, the Conservative peer who chairs Acoba, had asked for powers to punish those who broke the code.

But instead Mr Dowden instructed Acoba to exempt books, journalism and media appearances from strict restrictions on business appointments for former ministers - who are already bound by confidentiality rules when out of office.

It comes after Mr Dowden in July announced a new ethics scheme designed to strengthen punishments for ex-ministers who breached the guidelines with new appointments.

The former Tory party leader landed the job a day after he became the first ever former prime minister to be found to have lied to Parliament in the publication of the damning report into his partygate denials.

Despite resigning as an MP, Mr Johnson was still required to seek advice from Acoba on new jobs for two years after leaving his ministerial office. He stepped down as prime minister last September.

Acoba is charged with setting conditions on former ministers when they enter new jobs to prevent a revolving door of appointments - but it is an advisory body rather than a watchdog and it can not force people to comply with its rulings.