Three more government science advisors in the UK have quit in protest at the treatment of David Nutt.

Nutt was sacked by Home Secretary Alan Johnson after huge media interest in his comments on the relative harms of legal and illegal drugs, made in scientific journals and lectures. Shortly after the sacking two members of the 31-member Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), which Nutt chaired until his sacking, quit.

Yesterday’s resignations came directly after a meeting between Johnson and the remaining members of the council. The Home Office initially seemed to claim the meeting had been a success, saying it was “very constructive” and that Johnson had “emphasised the value he placed on ACMD’s advice, the important contribution the ACMD had made to government drug’s [sic] policy in the past and how he expected it to continue do so [sic] in the future”.

However, it quickly emerged that three council members were joining the exodus. If the resignations weren’t enough of a problem for the Home Secretary – who has already taken some heavy criticism from inside his own party and from outside – the handling of them has also been far from smooth.

One of those who quit, former president of the Royal Society of Chemistry Simon Campbell, appeared on BBC radio this morning to berate Johnson

“Yesterday Alan Johnson talked about building a level of trust between the Council and the Home Office, and my resignation was apparently announced by the Home Office while I was on a train home from London. I sent a formal letter to the Home Secretary late last night but I’m dismayed that my resignation was on BBC News as soon I got home,” he said on the Today Programme.

“I’m very concerned about what the Home Secretary believes is a level of trust.”

The other two resignations were from Ian Ragan and John Marsden.