PM fails to deny affair with model three times
the Prime Minister refused three times last night to say whether he had an affair with American businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri.
Boris Johnson was asked directly if they had a sexual relationship when he was the married mayor of London and she was a young entrepreneur who was given public money and preferential treatment.
he repeatedly dodged the affair question but when he was asked about misusing public money, he firmly answered ‘no’.
Mr Johnson, 55, faces four inquiries into whether he failed to declare a conflict of interest over the former model. the blonde businesswoman and her technology firms have been awarded more than £ 126,000 of taxpayers’ money, and she was given special access to three overseas trade missions with the then mayor.
Last night it emerged that she received her coveted entrepreneur visa to work in the UK from a Whitehall scheme run by an official who used to work for Mr
‘Potential conflict of interest’
Johnson. Miss Arcuri beat nearly 2,000 applicants to gain one of 200 soughtafter tier 1 entrepreneur visas on the government’s Sirius programme.
Paola cuneo, then director of the Sirius programme, previously spent two and a half years in a senior post at London & Partners, the official mayoral promotional agency which Mr Johnson had responsibility for while he was in city hall, the guardian reported.
it said Miss cuneo and Mr Johnson had both attended one of Miss Arcuri’s tech summits, in october 2013, shortly before she moved to the Sirius programme. there is no suggestion Miss cuneo did anything wrong.
Yesterday, Mr Johnson repeatedly ducked questions about Miss Arcuri, 34, during live interviews on Radio 4 and LBc radio, but last night Sky news’s political editor Beth Rigby asked him: ‘You’ve been accused of failing to declare a potential conflict of interest in relation to the awarding of public funds to Ms Arcuri and you’re now potentially facing a criminal investigation. Were you having an affair with Jennifer Arcuri?’
the PM replied: ‘i’ve said what i have to say about that matter.’ She asked him again if he was denying an affair and Mr Johnson dodged it by saying: ‘the crucial thing is that in terms of promoting London, everything was done with complete propriety.’
Finally, she asked: ‘it’s about whether you misused public money – that’s why i’m asking if you were having a sexual relationship.’ Answering the first part, before she had finished her question, Mr Johnson said: ‘i can certainly say there was absolutely no question of that at all.’
Miss Arcuri has said all the grants she received and trade mission trips she took part in were fairly awarded. Mr Johnson invited her on several trade missions between 2013 and 2015, despite her company not fitting the necessary criteria. he also used to visit her Shoreditch apartment, which had a nightclub dancing pole, for what she said were ‘technology’ lessons.
earlier this year, the cyber firm run by Miss Arcuri and her British husband Matthew hickey, 36, who moved to california last year, was given a £100,000 grant by the Department for culture, Media and Sport to help boost online security in the UK.
Former digital minister Margot James said yesterday she was ‘totally appalled’, adding it was a ‘big mistake’ because the government fund was intended to help UK firms.
She added: ‘it is a complete mystery to me how this company got anywhere near the money.’ Miss James, who resigned as a minister a week before Mr Johnson became PM, called for a ‘full and frank’ review, telling the guardian: ‘i don’t think anyone has got any chance of sweeping it under the carpet. it is too out in the open now.’
it is claimed that ‘very personal’ messages between Miss Arcuri and Mr Johnson were on a laptop that was stolen in the UK in the past fortnight.
A source close to the former model said: ‘they are private and very personal conversations between them. they were text messages between their phones which could also be accessed via the laptop as it was linked to her mobile phone account. She apparently sent him pictures as well as text messages.’