The former PM was accused of hosting a Tory peer who financed a lavish refurbishment of his Downing Street flat, a day after the second lockdown came into force
Boris Johnson is facing calls to be stripped of the allowance given to former Prime Ministers over accusations he’s profited from contacts he made while in office.
The Guardian reported a series of allegations that suggested Mr Johnson profited from contacts and influence gained as PM before he was forced to resign in disgrace over partygate. In a potential breach of Covid restrictions, the files claim Mr Johnson hosted a dinner for a Tory peer who financed a lavish refurbishment of his Downing Street flat, a day after the second lockdown came into force.
He is alleged to have lobbied a senior Saudi official he met while in office to share a pitch with crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, and to have been paid more than £200,000 after meeting Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. While in office, Mr Johnson is also accused of holding a secret meeting with Peter Thiel, the billionaire who founded the controversial US data firm Palantir, months before it was given a role managing NHS data.
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The files were obtained by Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoS), a US-registered non-profit that archives leaked and hacked documents. They mostly concern the period of time after Mr Johnson’s term as prime minister, from September 2022 and July 2024, along with some documents from when he was in No 10.
The Public Duty Costs Allowance is to help with the costs incurred by former prime ministers who are still active in public life. It affords former prime ministers up to £115,000 a year to cover office and secretarial costs arising from public duties.
Labour said Johnson had “serious questions to answer about his behaviour during Covid and about his activities after being forced out of office in disgrace”.
The Labour MP for Kensington and Bayswater, Joe Powell, said: “Taxpayer money for former prime ministers should be treated as a privilege to support public service, not a subsidy for individuals’ business interests. The new ethics and integrity commission should strip Boris Johnson of his support if he’s found to have abused these privileges.”
The Labour MP Lloyd Hatton, a current member of the public accounts committee, also called for an investigation into the spending. He said: “These revelations raise serious questions about the potential misuse of taxpayers’ money by Boris Johnson, who appears to have squandered public money on propping up his various business ventures and commercial interests.”
The Liberal Democrats have now called for Mr Johnson to be stripped of his access to an allowance. Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said: “These allegations are extremely shocking. This is yet another reminder of how deep the rot in the Conservative Party goes — it is riddled by sleaze and scandal.
“The Government must suspend Boris Johnson’s access to the former Prime Minister’s public duty cost allowance pending a full and proper investigation.”
Mr Johnson’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
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