Senior politicians want taxpayer-funded support for former PM suspended, as watchdog opens investigation
Senior politicians have called for Boris Johnson’s £115,000 taxpayer-funded annual allowance to be suspended after revelations in the Guardian suggested the former prime minister may have used his private office to profit from contacts he gained in office.
The government ethics watchdog, which monitors the activities of former ministers and senior civil servants, has also opened an investigation into Johnson’s newly revealed contacts and income since leaving office.
Johnson’s engagements, revealed in a major data leak from his private office, include lobbying senior Saudi officials for a firm he co-chairs and meeting with Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, after which he received more than £200,000 from a hedge fund.
The disclosures shine a spotlight on how Johnson appears to have used his private office since resigning as prime minister and the scheme that allows former UK prime ministers to claim government money to pay for expenses “arising from their special position in public life”.
