Everyone knew he had a crush on me, says PM’s ex-mistress

BORIS Johnson’s pole-dancing former mistress Jennifer Arcuri yesterday declared their affair was far from secret, boasting: ‘People knew he had somewhat of a crush on me.’

The US businesswoman claimed: ‘Everyone could see the dramatic difference in this man when I entered a room. I didn’t have to say anything.’ The pair have never denied an affair from 2012 to 2016 when Mr Johnson was London mayor.

He used to cycle from City Hall to her east London flat, which featured a nightclub dancing pole, for private ‘technology lessons’.

Miss Arcuri, 36, has previously made lurid claims they had sex on the sofa of his family home in Islington while his QC wife Marina Wheeler was out, and how he once begged her for intimate photos and had described one raunchy snap as enough ‘to make a bishop kick through a stained-glass window’.

Yesterday the tech entrepreneur gave evidence via video link from California to a meeting of the Greater London Assembly’s oversight committee.

Assembly members are investigating ‘governance procedures’ after Miss Arcuri was allowed on three overseas trade missions with the London mayor to boost business for the capital. Miss Arcuri denied that her relationship with Mr Johnson gave her privileged access, but acknowledged that people in the mayor’s office had known of their closeness.

She told assembly members: ‘People knew there was an interest of the mayor in me, and that he had somewhat of a crush on me.’ Wearing an off-the-shoulder green gown, Miss Arcuri gave the committee a racy description of her ‘exciting’ life in London eight years ago.

She described herself as ‘the most annoying persevering hustler’ as she explained that she would ‘relentlessly’ pursue her business interests.

During a trade mission to New York in 201 , she warned Mr Johnson his ‘fake’ blustering would fall flat there.

She said: ‘With New York, I remember calling him specifically, saying, “Look, you can fake it everywhere else, maybe try it in Los Angeles, but they’ll eat you alive in New York.’

Last year the police watchdog cleared Mr Johnson of any impropriety.