Inside Politics: Johnson facing cash for access claims over flat redecoration

The holidays are well and truly over for Boris Johnson, who wakes up this morning to yet more damaging headlines about the lavish redecoration of his Downing Street flat. It is nearly a year since reports of “wallpapergate” first began to emerge and the story looks like it is going nowhere fast, after messages published in full by the Electoral Commission yesterday cast further doubt on claims by the PM that he knew nothing about the funding of the expensive refurb, the cost of which exceeded £100,000 and was initially paid by the Tory peer, Lord Brownlow. The secret Whatsapp exchanges also appear to show Johnson giving his backing to Brownlow’s plans for an exhibition after asking him for money to sort out his “tip” of a flat, leaving him open to allegations of cash for access. Elsewhere, reports say the over 65s could be hit hardest by the looming cost of living squeeze and the PM has hit out at anti-vaxxers.

Parliament is not sitting.

Coming up:

– Small business and minister for the broadcast round, Paul Scully on BBC Radio 4 Today at 8.10am

–Shadow justice secretary Steve Reed on talkRADIO at 8.20am

MAJOR QUESTIONS: Sleaze-engulfed Johnson is facing fresh and major questions this morning after it was revealed he appeared to give his initial backing to a “great exhibition” plan by a Tory donor who just so happened to fund the luxury redecoration of his Downing Street flat. Yesterday, Lord Geidt, the PM’s ethics adviser, cleared him of breaking rules on declarations but messages published between Johnson and Lord Brownlow show the PM discussed the plan while asking for cash to fix up his “tip” of a flat.

WHAT WAS SAID?: “I am afraid parts of our flat are still a bit of a tip and am keen to allow Lulu Lytle to get on with it,” Johnson wrote to Brownlow, referring to the designer whose wallpaper sells at more than £800 a roll. “Can I possibly ask her to get in touch with you for approvals?” Johnson said, adding: “Ps am on great exhibition plan Will revert,” referring to a proposal for a festival in the UK which was backed by Brownlow. Brownlow thanked the PM in his reply and said: “...the Trust isn’t set up yet…approval is a doodle as it’s only me…and I know where the £ will come from…” Two months later, the donor joined a meeting with the culture secretary “to discuss plans for Great Exhibition 2.0” – a showcase of British innovation later renamed “Festival UK”. Johnson has repeatedly denied he knew about where the money for the flat refurb had come from, but the messages cast serious doubt on those claims. Last night No 10 insisted the idea for “Great Exhibition 2” was “not taken forward” – arguing “Festival UK” was a different project entirely – but was unable to explain the differences between them. Labour has seized on the latest revelations, saying the PM has serious questions to answer. Angela Rayner, deputy leader, said: “It appears that Lord Brownlow had access to the prime minister and culture secretary to discuss Great Exhibition 2 because he was paying for his luxury flat renovations.If so, that is corruption plain and simple.”

DRESSING DOWN: Johnson may have hoped that the conclusion of Lord Geidt’s probe would have drawn a line in the sand over the sordid wallpapergate affair, but his adviser’s publishing of a letter yesterday, which included an apology from the PM, is likely to raise further questions about what exactly went on. While clearing him of not breaking rules on declarations, Geidt in his correspondence gave the PM a serious dressing down, suggesting he could well have come to a different conclusion had Johnson not withheld the messages between himself and Brownlow, which the peer passed onto the Electoral Commission, who later published them. In his letter, Geidt describes the omission as “extraordinary”. “ I consider that the greatest possible care should have been taken to assemble all relevant material and this standard has not been met,” the letter states. It adds: “As a result, I believe this episode demonstrated insufficient regard or respect for the role of independent adviser.” The PM claimed that he was unable to recover the messages because he changed his phone number. “Once again, by attempting to hide the truth, Boris Johnson undermines his own office. The prime minister’s pathetic excuses will fool no one, and this is just the latest in a long line of sorry episodes,” Labour’s Rayner said. Steve Reed, Labour’s shadow secretary for justice, this morning repeated calls for Kathryn Stone, the independent standards commissioner who the PM tried to get rid of during the Paterson scandal, to investigate whether Johnson has broken the ministerial code.

BIG SQUEEZE LATEST: Britain’s looming cost of living crisis due to rising prices is likely to hit the oldest hardest, according to the Daily Express, which this morning splashes on new figures saying that millions of over-65s will be hit doubly hard as they are landed with £340 more on fuel bills. Meanwhile, over one million more people will pay the higher tax rate by 2026, according to new research. The analysis by the House of Commons Library - first published in The Daily Telegraph - says around 1.2 million additional workers will find their earnings going over the 40 per cent tax threshold as a result of the Government’s decision to freeze the personal tax allowance and higher rate tax threshold. Almost 1.5 million more people will be brought into paying the basic level of income tax. The Liberal Democrats, who commissioned the research, called on the Government to drop its “stealth-tax raid” that will “clobber families who are already feeling the pinch.”

SCRAP TITLE: Disgraced former Labour peer Nazir Ahmed should be stripped of his title after his conviction for the attempted rape of a girl and the sexual assault of a boy, according to a Conservative MP. Lord Ahmed of Rotherham was convicted on Wednesday of two counts of attempted rape and one of buggery. Sheffield Crown Court heard he carried out the attacks when he was 16 or 17 in the 1970s, but the girl was much younger. Alexander Stafford, the Rother Valley MP who has launched a petition calling on justice secretary Dominic Raab to withdraw the peerage, described the title as “an insult to his victims”.“There is no getting away from the fact that this paedophile is in possession of a peerage and this is absolutely and categorically unacceptable,” he said.

RACISM CLAIMS: Conservative peer Michelle Mone will be questioned by the police about claims she sent abusive messages to a man of Indian heritage, according to reports. The Sun newspaper reported the 50-year-old entrepreneur has been asked to attend a police station for an interview under caution. The Metropolitan Police is investigating claims that Baroness Mone sent racially aggravated messages to an unnamed man of Indian heritage in June 2019. The bra tycoon allegedly called the man a “waste of man’s white skin” in a Whatsapp exchange. Representatives for the baroness responded to the articles by denying that she was racist, saying: “Baroness Mone is 100 percent not a racist. Baroness Mone and her husband have built over 15 schools in Africa in the past three years.” Mone also faces allegations in The Guardian, also denied, that she and her husband were secretly involved in a PPE business that was awarded more than £200m in government contracts after she referred it to the Cabinet Office.

MUMBO JUMBO: The PM has launched an attack on anti-vaxxers spreading “mumbo jumbo” and spouting “complete nonsense” on social media – at a time when significant pressures are being faced by the NHS. Contrasting the Covid vaccine rollout to some European countries using “coercion” to jab their populations, the prime minister also stressed the government would maintain its “voluntary approach” to inoculation. As the number of NHS hospital trusts on critical alert level increased to 24 and cases of the Omicron variant spread rapidly, Johnson insisted it was now time for the government to “call out” anti-vax campaigners.“When you look at what is happening to patients coming into hospital, a large number of them, perhaps 30 to 40 per cent of them, haven’t actually been vaccinated at all,” he stressed.“That’s increasingly true of people who go into intensive care – the large majority of them have not been vaccinated at all and the overwhelming majority have not been boosted.”

“More crucially, I doubt whether I would have concluded, without qualification, what is set out in paragraph 33 of my report that ‘at the point when the Prime Minister became aware, he took steps to make the relevant declaration and to seek advice’.’”

In his letter, Lord Geidt suggests he may not have cleared Johnson of breaking rules on declarations had he been in possession of Whatsapp messages between the PM and Lord Brownlow.

“Jacob Rees-Mogg is right: National Insurance shouldn’t be raised. A far more progressive option is to tax housing wealth. Since the 1970s, house prices have risen by 166% across the country and by 513% in London.”

New statesman senior editor George Eaton on tax hikes.

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