Wafting away claims of corruption is the hallmark of the populist leader

In the build-up to last week’s elections, whenever senior Conservatives appeared in broadcast interviews, they defended allegations of possible corruption against the prime minister, with regard to the refurbishment of the Downing Street flat, with the claim that the public do not care. That it was merely a “Westminster bubble” issue, far detached from the people’s priorities. They are now using their success in some of those elections as vindication for such a claim.

It marks an especially low point in public discourse. The claims of corruption, into which a large number of independent investigations and inquiries are now under way, can be wafted away and generally undermined on the basis that the voting public aren’t bothered by them. But this is a long established hallmark of the authoritarian or the populist leader.

The latest investigation into Boris Johnson’s conduct has now been launched by the standards commissioner, who has grounds to be unconvinced by Boris Johnson’s 2019 holiday to Mustique. Eventually, the £15,000 cost of this holiday was declared in the House of Commons register of members interests, and the generosity in question as having come from Tory donor and Carphone Warehouse co-founder David Ross.

There was considerable confusion immediately afterwards, when Mr Ross denied having paid for the trip, rendering the prime minister’s declaration potentially false. Mr Ross later clarified that he had indeed provided use of a villa in Mustique for the prime minister, which was indeed a “payment in kind”, but he had not donated any actual cash in this instance.

This adds to the ongoing mess around the Downing Street flat refurbishment, and the prime minister’s continued refusal to state who initially paid a £58,000 bill, which he subsequently settled himself.

This stuff is indeed boring. The public, by and large, do not like politicians very much, and when there is no shortage of rather more important news around, it is somewhat wearying that so much of the available news bandwidth should be devoted to matters like wallpaper, and holidays, which feel somewhat trivial in the circumstances.

But these matters are not trivial. Very rich people, as a rule, do not become very rich by accident. They do not bestow great generosity upon politicians without expecting something back in return. Concurrent to the stories about the prime minister’s enjoyment of donor gifts are just as many stories about a VIP lane for lucrative government contracts reserved for Tory donors. Together, they paint a picture of a prime minister running up the bill, or at least seeking to run up the bill, for an extravagant lifestyle on the nation’s credit card.

The standard Conservative defence, when asked about these things, is that the taxpayer needn’t worry as no taxpayer money was spent. But that is not the point. The taxpayer can well afford £58,000 for some new wallpaper. Even £15,000 for a holiday in Mustique would not constitute so much as a drop in the taxpayer ocean. The question is whether these are downpayments for favours, or for preferential access to the hugely lucrative opportunities presented by doing business with the government, which really does cost the taxpayer money.

This is why these things attract such huge attention. They are why the “Westminster bubble” does go into something of a feeding frenzy over them. Because they understand what’s going on. They know it matters. They also know that Boris Johnson is being cagey with his answers, and that anything less than complete transparency is completely unacceptable.