Prime Minister in spotlight over five-figure freebie holiday
The Prime Minister is coming under pressure over who gifted him a five-figure holiday to the Caribbean island of Mustique after Christmas.
Yesterday Boris Johnson declared that his stay in a villa with his partner Carrie Symonds was a £15,000 gift from businessman David Ross.
On the latest Commons register of interests, the ‘benefit in kind’ trip was logged as having come from the Tory donor who co-founded the Carphone Warehouse chain.
But according to the Daily Mail, Ross claims not to have provided the villa.
A spokesman for the businessman said: “Boris Johnson did not stay in David Ross’s house.
“Boris wanted some help to find somewhere in Mustique, David called the company who run all the villas and somebody had dropped out.
“So Boris got the use of a villa that was worth £15,000, but David Ross did not pay any monies whatsoever for this.”
Ross had “not put his hand in his pocket whatsoever and can obviously prove that – [he] most definitely did not pay anything and it was not his house”, the spokesman added.
Labour’s shadow minister for the Cabinet Office Jon Trickett called on the Prime Minister to “come clean”.
“If he fails to do so, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards should step in and make him fess up,” he added.
“The public deserves to know who is paying for their Prime Minister’s jaunts.”
Downing Street sources insisted last night that Johnson’s holiday, which ran from December 26 to January 5, had been properly declared.