PM acted honestly during his affair, says No 10
BORIS Johnson acted with ‘honesty and integrity’ at the time he was having an extramarital affair with a US tech entrepreneur, No 10 insisted yesterday.
He conducted his relationship with Jennifer Arcuri from 2012 to 2016 when he was mayor of London and married to Marina Wheeler, mother of four of his children.
Lurid details of the affair emerged at the weekend when Miss Arcuri, 36, revealed how on one occasion in 2016 they had sex on a sofa at Mr Johnson’s marital home while his now ex-wife, a QC, was at work.
She even took a selfie in his kitchen and told how he said a raunchy photo she sent him was ‘enough to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window’.
The Prime Minister faces an investigation by the Greater London Authority (GLA) over whether he breached the mayoral code of conduct by failing to declare the relationship.
In 2019 it emerged that Miss Arcuri had accompanied him on three overseas trade trips and later got £126,000 of public money.
But yesterday Mr Johnson’s press secretary insisted he followed ‘all legal requirements’ as mayor as well as the Nolan principles requiring politicians to behave with honesty, integrity and openness.
Allegra Stratton said: ‘He does believe in the wider principles of integrity and honesty. He acts with integrity and is honest.’
She pledged that he would co-operate with the delayed GLA inquiry into the matter which is scheduled to begin after the local elections in May.
A separate probe by the Independent Office for Police Conduct concluded last year that Mr Johnson did not commit misconduct in public office but said he should have declared any ‘intimate relationship’ as a possible conflict of interest.