Prime Minister can’t brush decor row aside

FOR two months this newspaper has – without fear or favour – asked searching questions about the propriety of the sumptuous refurbishment of the Prime Minister’s Downing Street flat.

Since we broke the story, Boris Johnson has delivered a masterclass in prevarication, obfuscation and bluff.

He has doggedly refused to give a straight answer over who exactly stumped up £58,000 to help with his decorating bills.

Mr Johnson says he has paid to spruce up No11, which he shares with Carrie Symonds, his fiancee and mother of his baby son.

But crucially, was the invoice originally settled by a wealthy Tory donor – or someone else? And if so, was it a loan or a gift? The saga remains as clear as mud.

To draw a line under this unseemly episode, the Mail has beseeched Boris to come clean. For the shiftier he acts, the more ammunition he hands his enemies. Unfortunately, these pleas fell on deaf ears.

Now the Electoral Commission has dropped the bombshell that it is investigating, suspecting funding laws have been broken. This is extremely serious.

It is unprecedented for a sitting PM to be probed. If he has breached rules, he may face a fine or be expected to resign in disgrace. The police could even be called in (although, with no taxpayers’ money involved, it is difficult to see any prima facie evidence of criminality). In that instance, his premiership – once so promising – would surely end in ignominy.

Of course, as guardians of legality in elections, the Electoral Commission is supposed to be scrupulously impartial.

But the way it ran a politically-motivated kangaroo court against the leave campaign raises questions over those now sitting in judgment on its figurehead, Mr Johnson.

Certainly, the announcement’s timing, a few minutes before Prime Minister’s Questions, handed Sir Keir Starmer a powerful weapon. Nevertheless, one fact is inescapable. Boris has only himself to blame for this wholly avoidable quagmire.

leave aside the wisdom of parents spending eye-watering sums on designer wallpaper and upholstered furniture while simultaneously bringing up a new baby.

Is anyone oblivious to the prudent lesson that if you can’t afford something, don’t buy it? If you want soft furnishings, save up.

labour are, predictably, screaming ‘sleaze’. But as scandals go, this is hardly Watergate. Indeed, it pales alongside MPs’ expenses.

Mr Johnson is not corrupt. But he’s behaved foolishly, letting down himself, the Tory Party and voters in a fit of vainglory.

With luck, this will jolt him awake to the standards and gravity that the highest office requires. He can no longer breezily flutter around the edges of probity.

Why does this mess disappoint so many ( including this paper)? Because his leadership, largely, has been a triumph.

Boris broke the Brexit impasse and vanquished Jeremy Corbyn. The Red Wall, he turned blue.

He has delivered a phenomenally successful vaccine programme and Britain is motoring along on the road to normality. Our economy is poised to go supersonic.

Imagine just how much more he could achieve by focusing solely on the country, and not on the cut of his flat’s curtains.