Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
You call this INTEGRITY?
No10’s claim as PM under pressure over behaviour
AFTER claims by Jennifer Arcuri that she and Boris Johnson had sex on a sofa in his marital home, the Prime Minister’s press secretary insisted yesterday: “He acts with integrity and is honest.”
It came after the US tech entrepreneur told the Mirror about her relationship with Mr Johnson while he was Mayor of London.
No10 Press Secretary Allegra Stratton said the police watchdog had found Mr Johnson had “no case to answer” over whether rules were breached when Jennifer joined trade delegations and received public grants.
Ms Stratton said: “This has already been looked at in detail by the Independent Office for Police Conduct and it found these claims were untrue and unfounded. This has been looked at in depth and there was found to be no case to answer.”
However, the phrase “untrue and unfounded” was not used in the IOPC’S report last year.
She also said he followed “all legal requirements” as Mayor.
Calls increased for the PM to co-operate with a probe into whether any preferential treatment or access was given to Jennifer, who says they were lovers from 2012 to 2016.
CRONYISM
Labour’s Neil Coyle, MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, said: “No10 need to confirm ASAP that the PM doesn’t think himself above the law. We know he treated [Dominic] Cummings as exempt from rules about travel, but Johnson was required to meet the rules of office as Mayor of London and is accountable for his time and any money spent whilst in that office.”
SNP MP Pete Wishart said: “This entire episode highlights the pattern of rampant Tory cronyism under Boris Johnson.
“Rather than attempting to brush this under the carpet, Boris Johnson must come clean over his use of taxpayers’ money for these foreign trips and whether he breached the code of conduct.”
Lib Dem MP Layla Moran said: “While the PM’S private life is his affair, it is right that if City Hall believes there are still questions to be answered regarding the money and preferential access given to Jennifer Arcuri, then that deserves to be fully investigated.”
Mr Johnson, spotted running in a park with his dog Dilyn yesterday, has always refused to discuss his personal life.
His second marriage to Marina Wheeler ended in divorce last year after they separated in 2018.
He is now engaged to Carrie Symonds, with whom he has 10-month-old son Wilfred. In a press briefing yesterday, Ms Stratton did not address Jennifer’s explosive account of her relationship with Mr Johnson.
Questioned about the PM’S conduct, Ms Stratton said: “I’ve said he does believe in the wider principles of integrity and honesty. He acts with integrity and is honest.”
Jennifer told the Sunday Mirror she and Mr Johnson were involved in an “intimate relationship” while he was still married. She said they read Shakespeare together before having sex on a sofa at his home while his wife was away, as well as exchanging racy texts.
She claims he replied to an intimate picture of her by describing it as “enough to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window”. She also
claims Mr Johnson had sex with her at her London flat before attending the London Paralympics opening ceremony with his wife and Princess Anne.
The Prime Minister could face a legal summons to give evidence to the upcoming Greater London Authority inquiry, and failure to attend without a reasonable
excuse could lead to a fine or a maximum three-month jail term. The probe was paused while the IOPC investigated, and then delayed by the pandemic.
The IOPC concluded last year that there was no evidence Mr Johnson had committed misconduct in public office, which is a criminal offence.
But the watchdog said it would have been “wise” for him to have declared the affair and his failure to do so may have breached the Nolan Principles for Public Life.
These principles for all holders of public office, which were set out by Lord Nolan in 1995, include honesty, integrity, openness, accountability, selflessness, objectivity and leadership.