Boris faces 3rd probe over ‘Wallpapergate’
BORIS Johnson is facing the threat of a new probe into the lavish revamp of his Downing Street flat by the Commons sleaze watchdog he has attempted to undermine.
The Prime Minister was forced last night to deny claims that his botched effort to overhaul the standards process had been a ‘pre-emptive’ strike on Kathryn Stone.
Cabinet minister Kwasi Kwarteng yesterday suggested the parliamentary standards commissioner’s role was untenable in the wake of the row over Owen Paterson.
Now it can be revealed that the PM himself stands to be investigated by Miss Stone.
The Daily Mail understands that the commissioner will make a decision on whether to launch an inquiry into the funding of the refurbishment as soon as a separate probe being conducted by the Electoral Commission has been completed.
The Commission has handed over its initial findings to Tory party chiefs who now have an opportunity to respond.
Tory donor Lord Brownlow paid an invoice to cover some of the costs for the works, effectively giving Mr Johnson a loan, before the PM eventually settled the bill himself. However, this was not declared until after
‘Pre-emptive strike on commissioner’
the Mail published a string of exposes. Ecofriendly interior designer Lulu Lytle was hired to transform the flat with gold wallpaper costing as much as £840 a roll.
Lord Geidt, the ministerial standards adviser, earlier this year found Mr Johnson did not breach the ministerial code but acted ‘unwisely’ in allowing the refurbishment to go ahead without ‘more rigorous regard for how this would be funded’.
The Electoral Commission is carrying out a separate investigation into whether donations to the party were properly declared.
An inquiry by Miss Stone would be the third probe into the matter if she goes ahead. Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner requested in June that she investigate. Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s former chief aide, yesterday claimed in a tweet that the Government’s bid to change the standards process to spare Mr Paterson from being punished was actually ‘a preemptive strike by [the] PM on [the] EC (Electoral Commission) and [Miss] Stone’.
But No 10 denied the planned overhaul had been designed to protect Mr Johnson’s own interests. Mr Johnson has repeatedly clashed with Parliament’s sleaze watchdogs. In July, he was criticised for failing to explain promptly how a £15,000 holiday in Mustique was paid for.
He was also found by Miss Stone to have breached the code of conduct over the 2020 New Year break but escaped with a slap on the wrist as the committee on standards overruled her.
The committee said it was nevertheless ‘regrettable’ that a full explanation was not given before.
The probe began in February last year after the Mail revealed there were questions over who paid for the PM’s ten-day stay on the luxury Caribbean island. He had claimed the £15,000 cost of his accommodation was a gift from Carphone Warehouse founder David Ross.
But the multimillionaire businessman said he did not own the villa and had not paid for it use. Following an investigation, Miss Stone found Mr Johnson breached the MPs’ code by having not ‘fulfilled conscientiously’ requirements for registering the stay. After the committee received the commissioner’s report, its chairman Labour MP Chris Bryant wrote to Mr Johnson and Mr Ross demanding more information.
Their replies revealed an ‘ad hoc arrangement’ under which the Mustique Company paid the owners of the villa Mr Johnson stayed in and Mr Ross reimbursed them.
So the committee concluded Mr Ross was the funder of Mr Johnson’s accommodation, meaning the PM’s first declaration was accurate. But it said: ‘This matter could have been concluded many months ago if more strenuous efforts had been made to dispel the uncertainty.’