Mystery of the Mustique villa as donor denies hosting PM
Millionaire says he is not owner of Caribbean home despite Mr Johnson’s Commons declaration
THE MYSTERY surrounding who paid for Boris Johnson’s luxury Caribbean holiday deepened last night after a millionaire businessman named as giving him the £15,000 villa insisted he merely “facilitated” the trip.
The Prime Minister had declared his week-long stay at a luxury property on the island of Mustique in the Commons’ Register of Members’ Interests as a “benefit in kind” from David Ross, the co-founder of Carphone Warehouse.
But when Mr Ross, a Conservative Party donor, was contacted by a journalist, he said he was not the owner of the property and had not paid for Mr Johnson and his partner Carrie Symonds’ stay last December, and there had been some “mistake”.
Yesterday, Mr Ross’s spokesman insisted the businessman had simply “facilitated” the accommodation, adding: “Therefore this is a benefit in kind from Mr Ross to Mr Johnson, and Mr Johnson’s declaration to the House of Commons is correct.”
Jon Trickett, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, has now written to the Parliamentary Commissioner
for Standards calling for an investigation. Mr Trickett is demanding urgent clarification claiming that there is “no excuse” for confusion as Commons authorities provide guidance about how to fill in the register.
His letter says “transparency is crucial to ensuring the public have confidence that elected Members of this House have not been unduly influenced by any donations or gifts that they may receive”.
He told The Daily Telegraph: “It’s completely extraordinary. I’ve never seen anything like it. We’re waiting for a proper explanation.
“It leads to the conclusion there is something to hide. It is a large amount of money and he is being so casual about it. Clearly he has got the idea he doesn’t have to be accountable to anybody.”
The Daily Telegraph understands that Mr Ross has a timeshare deal on the island. When he was asked to help Mr Johnson stay on Mustique he did not then have access to the property.
So, he contacted a company that manages his home to try to organise a “timeshare swap”.
He was then informed that someone had dropped out of a timeshare villa booking that December. As a result, Mr Johnson’s holiday at that villa, called Indigo, was given the goahead.
It is understood that Mr Ross would not have had to pay money because he simply exchanged a similar period of timeshare use with the other villa owner. Basil Charles, who ran Basil’s Bar on Mustique, said a retired American couple in their sixties from the “Washington DC area” owns Indigo villa.
“They are not famous – just an ordinary and nice family,” he said, explaining that he could not recall their names.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “All relevant transparency requirements have been met as set out in the register. This was a benefit in kind from David Ross, as a spokesman for Mr Ross has confirmed.
“The Cabinet Office were aware of the declaration made by the Prime Minister and are satisfied that it was appropriate.”
One online brochure for the Indigo property boasts how it enjoys “the Atlantic dawn and Caribbean sunset” and has a “huge reflecting pool, splashed with a knife-edge waterfall and scented with jasmine borders”. In April 2019,
Mr Johnson was forced to apologise to the parliamentary commissioner for standards and the Commons committee on standards for failing to declare expenses correctly.
The committee asserted at the time that “should we conclude in future that Mr Johnson has committed any further breaches of the rules on registration, we will regard this as a matter which may call for more serious sanction”.
‘He is being so casual about it. He has got the idea he doesn’t have to be accountable’