Boris Johnson cleared of wrongdoing over luxury £15,000 Mustique trip
Boris Johnson has been cleared of wrongdoing over his £15,000 trip to Mustique, but was criticised by a parliamentary committee for not cooperating more in the probe.
Johnson had been investigated by the MP standards watchdog Kathryn Stone and then the House of Commons Committee on Standards over donations he received for the Caribbean holiday in December 2019.
The holiday was listed as a “benefit in kind” by the Prime Minister in the MPs’ register of interests, with the donor listed as Carphone Warehouse co-founder David Ross.
The committee accused Johnson of funding his holiday in “ad hoc and informal way”, but said he did not break the code of conduct for MPs as the holiday was in the first place registered correctly.
The investigation found that Ross was indeed the donor who paid for the holiday, despite his earlier claims that he had not paid for it and only “facilitated” accomodation.
“By Mr Johnson’s and Mr Ross’s own admission, the arrangements for funding Mr Johnson’s holiday accommodation were ad hoc and informal, and do not appear to have been fully explained to Mr Johnson at the outset,” the committee said.
“Mr Johnson initially agreed to a straightforward arrangement, but when it became apparent, within several days of his arrival, that he was not staying in Mr Ross’s villa, the arrangements became more opaque.
“It is unsatisfactory that neither Mr Ross nor Mr Johnson explained the arrangements to the commissioner until last autumn and that Mr Ross only provided minimal information on the arrangement this spring and in response to our own inquiries.”