Boris Johnson government in ‘scandalous’ breach of Ministerial Code. By Seth Thévoz

By Dilip -

Exclusive: Large payments to Johnson and ministers have been kept secret for months – fuelling controversy over lavish Downing Street refurbishment, and much more..   Boris Johnson’s government is breaking its own transparency rules by allowing large payments to the prime minister and other ministers to be kept secret for up to eight months, openDemocracy has found.

The ethics hush-up, which is in breach of the Ministerial Code, has been described as “scandalous” by a former chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life. It has, among other things, enabled continuing secrecy over the source of an alleged £60,000 private donation to help fund a lavish refurbishment of Boris Johnson’s private apartments – a controversy which is now being probed by the Electoral Commission. The Ministerial Code promises that "a statement covering relevant Ministers’ interests will be published twice yearly". None has been published since last July; the last one before that appeared in December 2019.

At a time when Boris Johnson’s government is under fire for COVID contracts and cronyism scandals, Alistair Graham, a former chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, branded the failure to publish ministers’ interests “All pretty scandalous; dreadful!”… 

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/ministerial-code-ministers-interests-downing-street-refurb/

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