Ministers’ millions in outside earnings kept secret

BOrIS Johnson has broken the Government’s own code of conduct by failing to disclose ministers’ outside earnings, it was claimed last night.

The Prime Minister and the entire Cabinet have kept payments and other interests worth millions of pounds secret for nine months, breaking a pledge to publish them twice a year.

The non-disclosure is said to have been caused by Whitehall anti-sleaze mandarin Sir Alex Allan’s resignation in November after Mr Johnson refused to sack Home Secretary Priti Patel over bullying allegations. Sir Alex was responsible for the publication of ministers’ outside interests and no one has been lined up to succeed him.

The failure to recruit a replacement means there are no plans to publish the list in the near future, according to the Open Democracy political website.

The Whitehall code of conduct was set up in the 1990s to stop a repeat of sleaze scandals involving ministers in John Major’s administration. Sir Alex, the Prime Minister’s independent adviser on ministerial standards, walked out in protest when Mr Johnson let Miss Patel keep her job despite claims she bullied officials.

Sir Alex’s role involved ensuring the outside interests of all 137 government ministers, including donations, loans, trusts, investments, plus similar interests of close family members, are published twice a year.

The latest list, due in January, is three months overdue with no prospect of it being released soon. According to Open Democracy, even if a successor to Sir Alex was appointed immediately, it would take months to process the declarations.

Commons Leader Jacob rees-Mogg is said to have a personal fortune of £200million and environment minister Lord Zac Goldsmith is believed to be worth £285million.

A Cabinet Office spokesman said a new list of ministers’ interests would be published ‘in due course’.