Christopher Geidt, Baron Geidt

Christopher Edward Wollaston MacKenzie Geidt, Baron Geidt, (born 17 August 1961) is a member of the House of Lords, former Courtier and Chairman of the Council of King's College London. He was Private Secretary to Queen Elizabeth II from 2007 to 2017.

Between 28 April 2021 and 15 June 2022 he was the Independent Adviser on Ministers' Interests to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Early life and education

Born in Marylebone, London, son of magistrates' court chief clerk Mervyn Bernard Geidt (1926–1991) and Diana Cecil MacKenzie (1928-2012), Geidt grew up on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. Geidt attended the Dragon School in Oxford and Glenalmond College in Perth and Kinross. He graduated in War Studies from King's College London, and in International Relations from Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He is a Fellow of King's College London (FKC), an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and an Honorary Bencher of Middle Temple.

Career

British Army

An Army Scholar, Geidt enlisted in the Scots Guards and attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst from 1982 to 1983; he did not pass out and receive a commission as he was invalided from the army. He was later commissioned in the Intelligence Corps, serving in the British Army from 1987 to 1994.

In 1987, Geidt joined the staff of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies, becoming an Assistant Director. From 1994 he worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in diplomatic posts in Sarajevo, Geneva and Brussels.

In 1991, Geidt and Anthony de Normann sued the journalist John Pilger and Central Television over the documentary ''Cambodia: The Betrayal'', in which they were accused of being members of the SAS secretly engaged in the training of the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia. Geidt and de Normann accepted "very substantial" damages and all costs. In a related libel action Ann Clwyd MP, then shadow minister for overseas development, issued a public apology to Geidt and de Normann and agreed to meet all legal costs.

During and after the war in Bosnia (1992–1995), Geidt was deployed to liaise with the Bosnian Serb leadership, including Radovan Karadžić, Momčilo Krajišnik and General Ratko Mladić, all later indicted for war crimes. He assisted the High Representative, Carl Bildt, in negotiating with Serbian President Slobodan Milošević for the removal of Karadžić from the presidency of Republika Srpska in 1996.

Geidt is the Honorary Regimental Colonel of the London Scottish Regiment, having succeeded George, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen in 2016. He was appointed Honorary Colonel 1st Battalion The Highlanders Army Cadet Force on 1 December 2024.

Private Secretary to Queen Elizabeth II

Geidt was recruited to the Royal Household in 2002 as Assistant Private Secretary to the Queen. He was promoted to Deputy Private Secretary in 2005. He then served as the Queen's Private Secretary from 2007 to 2017.

During his time as Private Secretary, Geidt was also Keeper of the Royal Archives and a Trustee of the Royal Collection and of the Queen's Silver Jubilee Trust (later the Queen's Trust). He remains a Trustee of the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust and is also Chairman of the Queen's Commonwealth Trust.

As Private Secretary, Geidt was a member of the so-called 'golden triangle' of senior British officials – the others being the Cabinet Secretary and the Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister – with key responsibilities in the event of a hung parliament in the United Kingdom, as happened in 2010.

After ten years as Private Secretary, Geidt stepped down in October 2017 and was succeeded by Sir Edward Young. He was subsequently created Baron Geidt, of Crobeg in the County of Ross and Cromarty, and sits as a Crossbench peer in the House of Lords. In early March 2019, he was appointed a Permanent Lord-in-waiting.

Oman, BAE Systems, Schroders, King's College London

Geidt became chair of the Council of King's College London in 2016, took an advisory role in the arms, security and aerospace company BAE Systems until April 2021, and serves as chair of a board in the asset management company Schroders. According to the diaries of Sir Alan Duncan, Geidt worked for the Sultan of Oman. In November 2021, academic staff at King’s College London wrote publicly complaining that Geidt had failed to disclose and manage conflicts of interest, breaching university policy. This included failure to state in the register of interests that he had been working for the Sultan of Oman, or manage conflicts with BAE Systems and Schroders, as the university had investments in BAE Systems up to 2020 and in Schroders, and had ‘multiple partnerships’ with Oman state bodies in medical care and dentistry.

Adviser on Ministers' Interests

On 28 April 2021, it was announced that Prime Minister Boris Johnson had appointed Geidt as the Independent Adviser on Ministers' Interests.

On 28 May 2021, Geidt published a report on allegations surrounding the financing of refurbishments made to 11 Downing Street. The report concluded that Johnson did not breach the Ministerial Code and that no conflict of interest, or reasonably perceived conflict of interest, arose. However, Geidt expressed that it was "unwise" for Johnson to have proceeded with refurbishments without "more rigorous regard for how this would be funded".

In December 2021 it was reported that Geidt was considering resigning his role as standards adviser for Johnson. The Conservative Party was fined £17,800 for improperly declaring this donation. Shadow First Secretary of State Angela Rayner called on Lord Geidt to reopen his investigation into funding of the refurbishment, and the Liberal Democrats have called for an independent public inquiry. Geidt's predecessor Sir Alex Allan resigned when his findings into alleged bullying of civil servants by Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, in November 2020, were overruled by Boris Johnson. Nick Cohen commented in ''The Guardian'' that "Lord Geidt, Johnson's ministerial standards adviser, now cuts a pathetic figure. The credulous man actually believed the prime minister when he said he knew nothing about a businessman buddy, Lord Brownlow, paying for the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat until the media mentioned it in February 2021." On 12 January 2022, in the House of Commons, MP Chris Bryant described Lord Geidt's reputation as "tarnished" by his involvement with Johnson.

In his annual report of May 2022, Geidt said that he had avoided offering unprompted advice to Boris Johnson about the latter's obligations under his own ministerial code because if it had been rejected, he would have had to resign.

On 14 June 2022, Geidt appeared at a Parliamentary committee, and was widely criticised, including as the "ultimate establishment stooge... who passes for Boris Johnson’s moral guardian." On 15 June 2022, Geidt resigned from the role. ''The Scotsman'' said the reason for his resignation was that he was "tasked to offer a view about the Government's intention to consider measures which risk a deliberate and purposeful breach of the Ministerial Code". ''The Daily Telegraph'' said he "had finally resigned over a row with the Prime Minister over trade policy". BBC News said the resignation was due to a request for advice on a trade issue that had left him with no choice but to quit. Geidt maintained he was asked to advise this week on an issue he believed would be a deliberate breach of the ministerial code. Geidt wrote "This request has placed me in an impossible and odious position," He wrote the concept that the prime minister "might to any degree be in the business of deliberately breaching his own code is an affront" that would amount to suspending the code "to suit a political end. This would make a mockery not only of respect for the code but licence the suspension of its provisions in governing the conduct of Her Majesty's ministers. I can have no part in this."

On 17 June 2022 a second letter appeared about Geidt's resignation. Geidt said he resigned due to the government's "openness" to breaking international law. Geidt maintained that statements to the effect that it was because of steel tariffs were a "distraction" and the issue was far wider. Geidt stated the steel tariffs issue was “simply one example of what might yet constitute deliberate breaches by the United Kingdom of its obligations under international law, given the government’s widely publicised openness to this”. Geidt was the second ethics adviser to resign under Johnson; Sir Alex Allan resigned in 2020.

Family and personal life

In 1996, Geidt married Emma Charlotte Angela Neill, younger daughter of Patrick Neill, Baron Neill of Bladen. The couple have two daughters.

He currently lives and farms on the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides.

Honours and awards

Geidt was appointed a Privy Counsellor (PC) in 2007. He was promoted to a Life Peerage to be Baron Geidt, of Crobeg in the County of Ross and Cromarty on 3 November 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Geidt, Christopher
1961 births
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
People educated at The Dragon School
People educated at Glenalmond College
Alumni of King's College London
Fellows of King's College London
Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Crossbench life peers
Permanent Lords-in-Waiting
Life peers created by Elizabeth II
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Companions of the Queen's Service Order
Private Secretaries to the Sovereign
Deputy Private Secretaries to the Sovereign
Graduates of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
Scots Guards soldiers
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