Cut the bluster Boris and give us clarity
used for political campaigning, the party appears to have panicked. An extraordinary apparent attempt to disguise the payment was launched.
This newspaper has been told that in early October Mr Johnson also discussed his financial woes in No10 with Lord Goldsmith.
Miss Symonds’s appointment in January as head of communications for the Aspinall Foundation, a wildlife charity, was a welcome boost to her and Mr Johnson’s income. A leaked email obtained by the Daily Mail showed that on October 23, Lord Brownlow told Mr elliot that he had made a £58,000 ‘donation’ to Tory hQ.
he made it clear it was to cover the same sum paid by the party to the Cabinet Office.
he added the £58,000 was to be attributed to the ‘ soon- to- beformed Downing Trust’ – headed by Lord Brownlow himself. Six months later the trust is no nearer to being established.
Cabinet Secretary Simon Case said this week that it could not be used to pay to refurbish either of the two Downing Street flats at numbers 10 and 11 – either now or in the future.
Bearing in mind that was its real, albeit unstated, purpose all along, insiders say the trust will now be ‘quietly dumped.’ Meanwhile, Downing Street now says the refurbishment costs ‘have been met by the Prime Minister personally’, but has not explained how Mr Johnson paid the £58,000.
It is not clear where he got the money from – nor who he has paid it to.
Miss Lytle? The Cabinet Office? Tory hQ? Lord Brownlow? The money trail is not just murky, it is dizzying. Opposition by Mr Johnson’s former chief of staff Dominic Cummings to using donors to pay for the flat was one of the reasons of his acrimonious exit from Downing Street in December.
But this newspaper has been told that when his successor, ex-banker Dan rosenfield joined No10 in January, he was similarly shocked.
‘he couldn’t believe anyone had allowed such a crazy arrangement to go ahead in the first place – or that so much time had been spent on trying and failing to sort out the mess,’ said a source.
Former Cabinet Secretary Lord O’Donnell said yesterday: ‘Prime ministers have to set an example and should abide by the rules which are there for a good reason. he needs to concentrate on issues like Covid and the way to do that is to abide by the rules.’
In his blistering attack last week Mr Cummings said he told Mr Johnson early last year that the funding of flat makeover was ‘unethical, foolish and possibly illegal.’
Whether you think Cummings is a genius or the devil incarnate, it is hard to disagree that Mr Johnson is guilty on at least one of the three counts.
Boris’s despairing cry to Downing St aides about lavish new decor – as revealed in definitive account of THAT scandal
MARGARET Thatcher’s approach to running the economy was much the same as to running her own household. Both, she once said, were based on the fundamental principle: ‘Live within your means, put by a nest egg for a rainy day, pay your bills on time.’
Sadly, this prudent lesson appears to have been lost on Boris Johnson, who massively overspent his Downing Street decorating budget then had to cast around desperately for someone else to foot the bill.
Today we detail the full unedifying story of how he went cap in hand to friends, Tory party staff and donors in his attempts to bridge the £58,000 shortfall.
The PM’s first thought was JCB chairman Lord Bamford. When that idea came to nothing, Mr Johnson wanted to have a blind trust set up, then an open trust, neither of which materialised.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet Office had paid the decorator’s invoice and was eventually reimbursed by the Tory party.
But that payment was deemed to be in breach of party and probably Parliamentary and Electoral Commission rules, so had to be paid back.
He then consulted his fiancée Carrie Symonds’s friend Lord Goldsmith, before the money was finally offered by another Tory donor, Lord Brownlow.
Mr Johnson now claims to have covered the bill himself, but whether that was from his own pocket or via a loan from Lord Brownlow or others is still unclear.
And if it was a loan or the money was given to him, has he declared it?
A Cabinet Office review is now under way into the process as well as investigations by the Electoral Commission and MPs’ standards committee.
It’s possible Mr Johnson could face a fine or even suspension from the Commons as this disreputable tale plays out.
But whatever the final outcome, it looks distinctly shifty and undermines the office of Prime Minister.
Apart from anything else, shouldn’t he have had bigger things to think about in the midst of a pandemic than who would pay for his wallpaper and soft furnishings?
He really should cut through the bluster and make all his transactions transparent without further delay. The sooner he draws a line under this sorry saga, the better for him – and the better for the country.