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He supported the former prime minister but was the fourth Cabinet member to quit in July last year.<\/p>\n
Some 62 resignations ended his time in Downing Street.<\/p>\n
In an interview with the Institute for Government, Mr Lewis called Mr Johnson\u2019s ousting \u201chugely unfair\u201d after his \u201cmassive mandate from the country\u201d.<\/p>\n
But he said that \u201cit was untenable at that point. I was in No 10 for two or three hours the night before, and I actually said to him, \u2018When you can\u2019t field a government, as unfair as it is, it\u2019s over.<\/p>\n
Read more <\/strong> Boris outlines Queen\u2019s amusing one-word response to his fear dream about her<\/strong><\/p>\n “And he couldn\u2019t really field \u00ada government. I also felt my position was untenable because he had offered me two promotions. If it hadn\u2019t been so late at night and [Buckingham] Palace had gone to bed, he would have announced one of them because he kind of just said, \u2018You\u2019re doing it.\u2019<\/p>\n “And I was a bit like, \u2018I\u2019m not sure about this.\u2019 I just thought, \u2018I can\u2019t do that, and I\u2019ve effectively now been moved from Northern Ireland to do this other thing, so my position\u2019s untenable anyway.\u2019 It was just farcical. So I just felt I had no choice. But I found it really difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Lewis returned to Cabinet as Justice Secretary under Liz Truss, who served as prime minister for 44 days.<\/p>\n Sir Robert Buckland, Wales secretary in her administration, recalled the \u201cdeeply upsetting\u201d experience of the Truss government. He told the IfG that her time \u201cstarted with high hopes\u201d and \u201cseemed to be well ordered\u201d.<\/p>\n But the \u201cwatershed moment\u201d came after the mini-Budget last September which included the biggest tax cuts since 1972, funded by a vast expansion in borrowing.<\/p>\n Sir Robert said there had not been the \u201cfullest appropriate disclosure\u201d to Cabinet members about what they were going to do. He added: \u201cIt might have led to a more informed discussion at Cabinet about the wisdom of rushing ahead with all those announcements at once, which, of course, we all know really sowed the seeds of the \u00adunravelling of the proposals.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I am very, very sad about it because a lot of what we were trying to do wasn\u2019t wrong.<\/p>\n \u201cIn fact, a lot of it was right. And she\u2019s been elected by the membership of the Conservative Party, so she deserved support. But they were the authors of their own misfortunes. It was deeply, deeply upsetting to be involved in that.\u201d<\/p>\n We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/139\/590x\/secondary\/4945219.jpg?r=1693949656651\")
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