PM urged to ‘be honest and answer questions’

CHALLENGE Rachel Reeves

BY

Political Editor

LABOUR’S Rachel Reeves urged Boris Johnson to tell the truth about who paid for tarting up his Downing Street flat to avoid an embarrassing probe.

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Mirror, the Shadow Cabinet Office minister said the Tories are mired in the same dodgy dealings Tory PM John Major faced 30 years ago.

She said: “The difference is it was Tory backbench MPs embroiled in sleaze, and John Major wanted to clean it up.

“Now it goes to the heart of Downing Street and Boris Johnson is incapable of doing so. Yet there’s a simple way of resolving that. That’s for the PM to tell us who initially paid the invoice for the refurbishment.

“We wouldn’t need an inquiry if the PM could be honest and answer a straightforward question. There’s something dodgy going on here if the PM can’t answer that simple question.”

Mr Johnson says he personally paid the £58,000 cost of refurbishment, but refuses to reveal who settled the original bill. The Electoral Commission has now launched an investigation.

Ms Reeves added: “We don’t know the total cost and people are talking about £200,000. We don’t know if there were any other loans.

“And unless Boris Johnson paid the initial invoice, it should have been declared.”

Ms Reeves said the aura of sleaze around senior Tories is beginning to cut through to the voters who go to the polls on Thursday for local elections.

“If you’re sick of Tory sleaze and cronyism, the way to send that message is by voting Labour on Thursday,” she said.