BORIS ON THE ROPES

On ‘bodies’ leak He denies Mail story but BBC and ITV confirm it On No10 decor Tory party paid bill for £58,000 flat makeover On ‘chatty rat’ We reveal PM texted Dom to put him in clear

BORIS Johnson was under siege last night as questions mounted over his personal conduct in a string of controversies.

Fresh sources came forward to confirm he had made a crass comment about lockdown deaths – even as he tried to deny it. In a second blow, he was facing further questions about the lavish redecoration of his flat after it emerged that the Conservative Party settled a £58,000 bill last summer. Whitehall sources suggested the Prime Minister, who has now paid the bill himself, may be forced to formally declare the loan over the coming days.

In a further setback it was revealed that he had texted Dominic Cummings last year to exonerate him over the notorious ‘chatty rat’ leak inquiry – undermining Downing Street’s claims that the former aide was behind a string of damaging disclosures. Ministers tried to play down yesterday’s explosive revelation in the Daily Mail that Mr Johnson had allegedly raged at officials that he would rather see ‘bodies pile high in their thousands’ than order a third lockdown.

But the Mail’s story was confirmed by both the BBC and ITV, citing their own

sources. In a terse denial yesterday, Mr Johnson said he had not uttered the words. Asked if he made the comments, Mr Johnson told reporters in Wrexham: ‘No, but I think the important thing I think people want us to get on and do as a Government is to make sure that the lockdowns work.’

In the Commons Michael Gove said it was ‘incredible’ to suggest the Prime Minister would have used such language and fellow minister Nadine Dorries branded it a ‘lie’.

But ITV political editor Robert Peston said two eyewitnesses, neither of whom had spoken to the Mail, confirmed that Mr Johnson had made the outburst following a tense meeting to agree the second lockdown in October last year.

News of the Covid clampdown was leaked to the Mail last October just hours after the decision was taken. The leak infuriated the PM who told the Cabinet Office to launch an investigation to hunt down the so-called ‘chatty rat’ who leaked it.

Last week, Mr Johnson ordered an extraordinary briefing war against Mr Cummings, in which his former aide was accused of being behind the leak.

The former Vote Leave chief responded with an explosive 1,100-word statement in which he said both the Prime Minister and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case had exonerated him of involvement. Mr Case did not dispute this claim yesterday. But he denied Mr Cummings’s allegation that Mr Johnson had tried to block the investigation after learning that a close friend of his fiancée Carrie Symonds had been implicated.

He told MPs it was ‘probable’ that investigators would never be able to determine who leaked the story, despite bringing in MI5 to help track the mobile phone data of senior ministers and officials.

Mr Case was earlier left squirming as he tried to duck questions from MPs over who paid for the refurbishment of the Prime Minister’s flat in 11 Downing Street.

Britain’s most senior civil servant refused to say whether political donations had been accepted to help settle the bill for the redecoration overseen by eco-designer Lulu Lytle last year. He confirmed revelations in the Mail that Mr Johnson had sought to establish a new charitable trust overseen by

Tory donor Lord Brownlow to pay for the upkeep of the flat. But he said it was now clear that a charitable trust could not be used to renovate private areas of No 10, leaving Mr Johnson to pick up the bill.

Mr Case claimed he could not comment further because he was now leading a new review of the issue for the Prime Minister – prompting former shadow chancellor John McDonnell to describe his evidence as a ‘badly scripted version of Yes, Minister’.

In emails revealed by the Mail last week Lord Brownlow said he had given the Conservative Party £58,000 to cover payments ‘the party has already made’.

The Cabinet Office told Parliament on Friday that Mr Johnson had now settled the bill himself. A senior Tory told the Mail he had had to take out a personal loan to cover it.

Whitehall sources last night suggested that the Prime Minister would declare the financial support he received in the next register of ministerial interests, which could come as soon as this week.

But Labour yesterday stepped up calls for a full inquiry by the Electoral Commission. Party leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was time for ‘a full and transparent investigation into everything going on’ in No 10.

The allegations of sleaze and cronyism may now be having an impact, with an Ipsos Mori poll for the London Evening Standard showing Tory support has fallen by five points in a month. The poll put them on 40 per cent, three points in front of Labour.

AFTER days of claim and febrile counterclaim over leaks, sleaze and feuds at the heart of Downing Street, the public had a right to expect some much-needed clarity yesterday.

Instead, when the day was over the waters were as murky as ever. To quote Labour’s John McDonnell, it played out ‘like a bad episode of Yes Minister’. For once, it was hard to disagree with him.

Using skills of obfuscation Sir Humphrey would have been proud of, Cabinet Secretary Simon Case first spent more than an hour telling a committee of MPs ... absolutely nothing.

Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove later performed a similarly evasive function in the Commons, brushing off all invitations to shed fresh light on the various intrigues.

But if the Prime Minister believes searching questions over his conduct will evaporate, he is severely deluded. Thanks to his refusal to deal openly with a sequence of troubling issues brought to light by the Daily Mail, they are becoming louder.

He sought to refute our most recent revelation, that he was overheard at No 10 in October saying he would rather see ‘bodies pile high in their thousands’ than order another lockdown.

However, the story has since been backed up by the political editors of the BBC and ITV and we stand robustly by it.

Meanwhile, the question of how the lavish refurbishment of the PM’s Downing Street flat was funded was also left hanging.

Risibly, Mr Case said Mr Johnson had asked him to launch a review into the matter. Why? If there’s nothing to hide about who paid the £58,000 at issue, then make the details public.

Did Boris cast around for Tory donors to pay his decorating bills or not? If a formal investigation is needed to answer such a simple question, that in itself is staggering.

Then there’s the ‘Chatty Rat’ imbroglio, over who leaked details of a top-level Covid meeting in October, at which the second lockdown was agreed.

Mr Johnson and his former aide Dominic Cummings, whom he blames for the leak, are engaged in a vicious war of words which should never have been allowed to happen.

The leak inquiry has already been going on five months, yet Mr Case said it would be some weeks before it’s concluded.

Again, why? Could it be there are things the PM would prefer you not to know?

As scandals go, this hardly ranks with MPs’ expenses or taking the country to war on a false premise. But as Stephen Glover argues in these pages today, it matters. It’s about probity.

When there is evidence of impropriety in high public office, it is the vital role of the free Press to expose it without fear or favour. This is precisely what the Mail has been doing.

After all, if a Prime Minister is seen to play fast and loose in his own financial dealings, why should taxpayers trust him with their money?

Similarly, language is important. If he did speak of allowing bodies to ‘pile up’ he was being both crass and callous at a time when true statesmanship was called for.

Let us be clear. Britain should be profoundly grateful to Mr Johnson for saving us from Corbynism, getting Brexit done and finally breaking the Westminster logjam by securing a landslide majority.

The Mail is also fully behind his One Nation mission to ‘unite and level up’.

But the growing factionalisation, fear and loathing within Downing Street have become a dangerous distraction from the vital work ahead.

He needs to show transparency on all outstanding allegations, get a grip on his political and personal household and wipe the grimy slate clean.

Only then can he truly devote all his energies to healing the damage of Covid and getting the economy roaring again.