Boris cast me aside like a ‘gremlin’, says US businesswoman

THE businesswoman at the centre of a controversy involving Prime Minister Boris Johnson says she wished he had declared their personal relationship as a potential conflict of interest to avoid her “humiliation”.

In an interview with ITV, US businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri ( below) claimed Mr Johnson cast her aside as though she was a “gremlin” after she tried to contact him for advice on how to handle the media interest.

Her links with Mr Johnson came under public scrutiny earlier this year over allegations she received favourable treatment for her business ventures during his eightyear stint as Mayor of London.

The show alleges the pair were involved in an affair for more than four years.

Ms Arcuri has refused to say whether one took place and again would not be drawn on the nature of their relationship.

She said: “When t he story broke half the people that reached out told me to categorically deny, deny, deny the other half told me to, admit the, er, affair, fall on the sword get it over with.”

Addressing Mr Johnson directly, Ms Arcuri told ITV: “I’ve been nothing but loyal, faithful, supportive, and a true confidante of yours. I’ve kept your secrets, and I’ve been your friend.

“And I don’t understand why you’ve blocked me and ignored me as if I was some fleeting onenight stand or some girl that you picked up at a bar because I wasn’t — and you know that.

“And I’m terribly heartbroken by the way that you have cast me aside like I am some gremlin.”

Asked by journalist John Ware if she wished Mr Johnson had declared their relationship as an interest, Ms Arcuri said: “I didn’t know anything about having to declare me.

“Now if you’re asking if he had declared me, would I have preferred that to avoid all of this humiliation? Absolutely.”

Ms Arcuri said she be c a me “c o l l a t e r a l damage” from the controversy while Mr Johnson escaped “unaffected”. She was reportedly given £126,000 in public money and privileged access to three foreign trade missions led by Mr Johnson while he was in City Hall.

A City Hall investigation into their relationship was paused following a request by the Independent Office for Police Conduct while a Government review ruled a £100,000 grant she was given by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport through a cyber skills fund was “appropriate”.