UK PM Johnson accused of misleading ethics adviser
With pressure mounting after a disastrous series of mistakes and scandals, Johnson’s integrity was under the spotlight after an official report suggested he gave differing accounts to investigators looking into the redecoration of his Downing Street flat
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been accused of misleading his own ethics adviser, exposing him to a potential suspension from the House of Commons, as MPs demanded a fresh probe into his personal donors.
With pressure mounting after a disastrous series of mistakes and scandals, Johnson's integrity was under the spotlight after an official report suggested he gave differing accounts to investigators looking into the redecoration of his Downing Street flat, reports the Guardian.
Their calls were provoked by a report published on Thursday by the UK's Electoral Commission, which had spent eight months investigating the funding of the costly redecoration.
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The commission fined the Conservative party £17,800 for serious donation reporting failures relating to the work.
But documents released by the commission also revealed Johnson sent a WhatsApp message to the Tory donor Lord Brownlow in November last year seeking more money for the costly makeover.
In an earlier inquiry into the matter, Boris Johnson had assured Lord Geidt, the independent adviser on ministers' interests, that he did not know who had given money for the work until it was revealed by the media in February this year.
Though Downing Street denied there was any inconsistency, Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said Johnson "must now explain why he lied to the British public".
She said the UK PM was taking people for fools.
The Labour MP Margaret Hodge has written to the parliamentary standards commissioner, Kathryn Stone, urging her to investigate whether Johnson misledLord Geidt, who had cleared him of breaching the ministerial code.
The furore over the flat refurbishment has dogged Johnson for months. The money for the work came from the Tory peer, David Brownlow, via his company Huntswood Associates Ltd. It was used to cover the costs of extensive and costly refurbishment changes to the flat above No 11 Downing Street, where Johnson, his wife, Carrie, and their children live.
Downing Street claimed there was no inconsistency between the Geidt and Electoral Commission reports, as Johnson only knew that Brownlow was organising donations to pay for the refurbishment works, not that Brownlow was himself "the underlying donor". Brownlow had "behaved in a confidential manner" after being appointed to head the blind trust in June 2020, Johnson's spokesperson said.
