The British Election Commission announced, Wednesday April 28, to open an investigation into the renovation of the apartment occupied by Boris Johnson in Downing Street, after the Prime Minister was accused of having financed the work with private donations.
“We are now convinced that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that one or more offenses may have occurred. We will therefore continue this work in the form of a formal investigation to determine if this is the case ”, explains the commission after evaluating the information provided to it since last month by the Conservative Party.
A government spokesperson said on Tuesday that the costs of renovating the apartment had been borne by Boris Johnson, without specifying whether or not the leader had received a loan which he later repaid.
A series of scandals
This announcement came shortly before the traditional weekly questioning session for the head of government in the House of Commons. Boris Johnson, accused by his former right-hand man and mastermind of the victorious Brexit campaign in 2016, Dominic Cummings, of several irregularities, was preparing to face criticism from the Labor opposition.
He has refuted any breach of the rules during the renovation of the apartment he occupies in Downing Street. “I was the one who covered the costs (…) and I can tell you that I have fully complied with the code of conduct, the ministerial code ”Mr Johnson told MPs.
Mr Cummings had crushed the Tory leader and questioned his integrity in a lengthy post on his blog on Friday. A few days before the local elections, on May 6, these attacks are particularly unwelcome for Boris Johnson, already implicated in a lobbying scandal splashing some members of his government.
Mr Johnson is also accused of uttering a catchphrase to oppose a new containment in the fall of 2020. The newspaper Daily Mail claimed on Monday that during a meeting held at the end of October, Boris Johnson said: “No more fucking confinement, let the bodies pile up by the thousands. “ Despite the denial of Downing Street, several media have picked up the information, assuring to have confirmation from anonymous sources.
When questioned in Parliament, Boris Johnson denied on Wednesday having uttered the sentence, adding that the decision to reconfine had been ” very difficult “ to take. “The confinements are terrible things, but I must say that we considered that we had no choice”, did he declare.
