Boris Johnson has been accused of corruption over the guarantees he made to the Tory donor who helped pay for the £112,000 refurbishment of his Downing Avenue flat.
Labour has known as for an investigation into what occurred, and stated the prime minister has inquiries to reply over potential ‘money for entry’ following the discharge of ‘cosy messages’ between him and Lord Brownlow.
In WhatsApp messages exchanged between the PM and Lord Brownlow in November 2020, Mr Johnson requested the peer to approve additional work on his non-public flat.
Mr Johnson stated his flat was ‘a little bit of a tip’ and he was ‘eager to permit’ the designer Lulu Lytle to ‘get on with it’.
He then promised Lord Brownlow he was ‘on the nice exhibition plan’ including ‘will revert’.
Lord Brownlow responded that he would type the flat ‘ASAP’ and thanked Mr Johnson for ‘enthusiastic about GE2’.
Information of ministerial conferences reveal Lord Brownlow was later current at a gathering that included then-culture secretary Oliver Dowden and the Royal Albert Corridor on January 18, 2021.
Downing Avenue insisted on Thursday that the concept for a Nice Exhibition 2.0 ‘was not taken ahead’ though the concept of the ‘Competition UK’ which was first introduced in 2018 is deliberate for 2022.
A spokesperson for the prime minister was not in a position to clarify the distinction between the Nice Exhibition 2.0 and Competition UK.
Competition UK is also referred to as Unboxed, and was beforehand dubbed the Competition Of Brexit by the Commons Chief Jacob Rees-Mogg. It has been billed as an exposition of creativity and innovation.
Stories from 2018 stated the pageant could be ‘a nationwide celebration impressed by the 1851 Nice Exhibition’.
In an additional assertion, a No 10 spokesperson stated: ‘All prime ministers and ministers have proposals put to them at numerous factors and ministers additionally meet stakeholders repeatedly as a part of their engagement on an array of points.
‘In keeping with regular observe, this concept was referred to the related division, thought-about and in the end not taken ahead by the Authorities.
‘The Authorities is taking ahead Competition UK this yr, which was confirmed in 2018, re-affirmed within the 2019 manifesto and is a cultural programme of occasions, known as “Unboxed”, on arts, design and expertise which can span the entire of the UK.’
However Labour’s deputy chief Angela Rayner stated: ‘It seems that Lord Brownlow had entry to the prime minister and tradition secretary as a result of he was paying for his luxurious flat renovations.
‘It's fairly unbelievable that Boris Johnson didn’t know who was paying for his luxurious flat renovations.
‘In that case, that's corruption plain and easy.
‘No-one ought to be capable of purchase entry or alternate wallpaper for festivals. Boris Johnson has critical inquiries to reply.’
Shadow justice secretary Steve Reed stated Labour has requested Parliamentary Requirements Commissioner Kathryn Stone to research the alternate, arguing there are questions on potential ‘money for entry’ for the prime minister to reply.
Mr Reed stated the textual content messages ‘matter immensely’, arguing that they present Lord Brownlow ‘seems to have entry to the prime minister as a result of he was paying for the flat renovations’ at Downing Avenue.
‘If that's the case, that's corruption,’ he informed BBC Radio 4’s At this time programme.
‘And what we’re seeing here's a case of, doubtlessly, money for entry the place Lord Brownlow was given entry to ministers to try to affect them over choices of spending taxpayers’ cash – that's the reason this issues so immensely.
‘These very cosy textual content messages present there was a quid professional quo in operation between the prime minister and Lord Brownlow, and we have to get to absolutely the backside of this.’
Requested why the messages are problematic on condition that the Nice Exhibition was not given the go-ahead, Mr Reed replied: ‘The difficulty will not be whether or not it occurred, it's whether or not wealthy individuals pays to get entry to Authorities ministers to try to affect them over how they resolve to spend taxpayers’ cash.’
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