BRITAIN:London's deputy mayor Ray Lewis resigned yesterday, blaming the pressure of media inquiries into allegations about his past. "I have today submitted my resignation to the mayor who has with deep regret accepted it," he said.
Mayor Boris Johnson announced on Thursday he was launching an inquiry into allegations of sexual and financial misconduct against Mr Lewis, a Guyana-born ordained Church of England priest who runs a charity for black youths.
Mr Lewis had dismissed the allegations as "complete rubbish" at a hastily arranged press conference with Mr Johnson at his side in the mayor's City Hall office.
Mr Johnson said he had every confidence in his deputy, but just over 24 hours later, Mr Lewis was back in the same briefing room announcing he was standing down.
"The inquiry . . . has done little to calm the avalanche of allegations," he said. "I cannot allow things that I have been in to, up to and around me, to obscure the important business of this mayoralty and for that reason I must step down as deputy mayor for young people with immediate effect." - (Reuters)