29 April 2021 - Boris Johnson under fire for flat refurbishment
Electoral Commission to investigate Boris Johnson's Downing Street flat renovations
(BBC News, 28/04/2021)
The Electoral Commission has launched an investigation into funding of works on Boris Johnson's Downing Street flat.
The spending watchdog said there were "reasonable grounds to suspect that an offence or offences may have occurred".
The PM is under growing pressure to declare how refurbishments were paid for after his ex-adviser said there was a plan for donors to "secretly pay".
Why Boris Johnson’s Downing Street refurbishment is a big deal in Britain
Karla Adam (The Washington Post, 28/04/2021)
Perhaps Boris Johnson could have learned a lesson from the controversy over Harry and Meghan's renovation of Frogmore Cottage: The British are very touchy about the financing of refurbishments.
The British prime minister has come under scrutiny for the redecorating of his official apartment — or flat, as it’s called here. On Wednesday, Britain’s political spending watchdog announced an investigation into whether funds used to pay for the refurbishment of 11 Downing Street were properly disclosed.
Boris Johnson may not care about honesty and integrity – but the rest of us do
Jess Phillips (The Independent, 28/04/2021)
Did he say it, or didn’t he say it? I don’t know if Boris Johnson said, “no more fu*king lockdowns – let the bodies pile high in their thousands”. I can believe he did because he said that investigating historic childhood sexual abuse was “spaffing money up the wall”. He is no stranger to acting the hardman in the face of the hideous hurt, trauma and pain of the people he claims to represent.
Either he said it, or he allowed a man he is now accusing of being a malicious liar to lead the charge on Brexit – the biggest, most difficult shift our country has seen in a generation. Either Boris Johnson is a vicious heartless fool, or he has such poor judgement that he would allow Dominic Cummings, a man who is happy to smash his former friend’s life up, to have power over our lives. I think it is both.
We can’t let the prime minister get away with brazenly lying to our faces
Caroline Lucas (Metro, 28/04/2021)
With local elections fast approaching, and politicians including the prime minister out canvassing voters, the Conservatives are claiming that issues of sleaze aren’t cutting through to voters on the doorstep.
It’s not ‘stuff that people are talking about’, according to the prime minister.
I don’t know whether the sleaze, the lying and the questions over who paid for the refurbishment of the Downing Street flat will affect the results on 6 May. But I do know that these issues matter to the health of our democracy and as things stand, it is in a sickly state.