The makeover of the prime minister’s flat, reported to have cost up to £200,000, has caused nothing but headaches for the government. Ever since the first carefully phrased denials were issued, this story has kept escalating.
As openDemocracy revealed last month, Boris Johnson has been breaking his own government’s transparency rules by failing to publish an up-to-date register of ministers’ interests. The prime minister’s own former senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, said Johnson planned to “have donors secretly pay” for the work.
Here’s what we do know. The civil service refused to pay £58,000 for luxury designer Lulu Lytle’s June 2020 invoice. There were also concerns about the total bill exceeding the £30,000-limit on taxpayer funds for the project.
In July 2020, with Lytle’s invoice deadline looming and Johnson unable to afford it himself, the Conservatives are said to have used Tory party funds to meet the bill.
In order to cover this amount, Tory donors from the Leader’s Group later dug deep – Tory peer David Brownlow paid £58,000 in October 2020. openDemocracy understands the amount was later repaid back to Brownlow, and that he looked at setting up a Trust with himself as chair, to avoid having to disclose the donation. Lord Brownlow has not commented on this.
The Conservative Party denies currently using its funds to pay the bill – but that was never the allegation. It has refused to be drawn in on whether it had previously used its funds in that way.
Last week, Cabinet Office minister Nicholas True told the House of Lords the extra cost had now been “met by the prime minister personally”. This raises even more questions – Boris Johnson has not declared any income windfall, so how can he suddenly afford a £58,000 bill that he couldn’t afford last July? Labour shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves suggested Johnson was “Possibly breaking the law.”
This has all the signs of a government cover-up underway for nine months. But openDemocracy has identified at least seven different sets of rules that the prime minister, his party and his government may have broken.
1) Electoral law
Any political party receiving a donation of over £7,500 has to report it to the Electoral Commission, or the party would be breaking the law. Similarly, large loans also have to be reported, as do donations that are later returned – including rejected donations.
The Conservative Party’s detailed returns for 2020 made no mention of any £58,000 donation from Lord Brownlow, nor of any other donors to cover the flat. An Electoral Commission probe is underway.
At the very least, the Conservative Party is facing a fine, if it emerges – as suggested by a leaked memo – that a £58,000 donation went undeclared.
Dominic Cummings’ blog post last week suggests “donors” (plural) were approached – the first public confirmation that more than one donor may have contributed to the refurb fund. If so, that opens the possibility of more “phantom” donations emerging.
2) Ministerial Code
Johnson is covered by a strict Ministerial Code. It says “no minister should accept gifts, hospitality or services from anyone which would, or might appear to, place him or her under an obligation.”
It also says a list of “ministers’ interests will be published twice yearly”. As an openDemocracy exclusive in March showed, the government has been able to get out of Boris Johnson having to report the donation, by simply having the entire UK government breach the Ministerial Code, in failing to publish an updated list. The last list was published in July 2020, prior to the Downing Street donations.
