Boris Johnson ally quits "apathetic" UK government, sparks row with Sunak

Minister Zac Goldsmith quit the British government on June 30 with a stinging attack on Rishi Sunak's environmental record.

But his exit comes a day after MPs took him to task for sticking up for Boris Johnson — and it's already kicked off a bitter row with No.10 Downing Street, POLITICO reports.

In a highly-critical letter to the U.K. leader, the environment minister — who once ran for London mayor and was placed in the House of Lords by Johnson — said: "This government's apathy in the face of the greatest challenge we have faced makes continuing in my current role untenable."

The dramatic exit comes after Goldsmith, a longstanding environmentalist, was criticized by a cross-party committee for his recent role in backing Johnson.

The privileges committee argued Thursday that allies of the former prime minister, including Goldsmith, had been part of a "coordinated campaign to interfere with" its work investigating Johnson's conduct.

Goldsmith was criticized for retweeting a social media post branding the committee — investigating whether Johnson misled parliament over coronavirus rule breaches by government staff — a "kangaroo court."

Downing Street was quick to highlight that row Friday, claiming that it had asked Goldsmith to say sorry.

A terse letter from Sunak to Goldsmith, published by No.10, said the minister had been "asked to apologize for your comments about the privileges committee as we felt they were incompatible" with a government job. "You have decided to take a different course," said Sunak.

That prompted an immediate pushback from Goldsmith's team, with the Express newspaper reporting a denial that he had been asked to say sorry, and citing a "Tory source" who said: "No. 10 briefing against Zac Goldsmith on the way out is yet another sign of major political ineptitude."

It marks the latest bad blood between Sunak and Johnson's allies. Sunak quit Johnson's government last year, helping precipitate his downfall, and has since publicly sparred with his Tory predecessor on a host of issues.