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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Politics
Mikey Smith

Boris Johnson bans ministers from Davos in bid to shed 'billionaire party' image

Boris Johnson has banned ministers from the Davos summit this year in a bid to shed the Tories' reputation as the party of billionaires.

The Prime Minister and his top team will not attend the annual economic forum in Swizerland, which attracts the global elite.

Mr Johnson has attended the summit several times - including at least twice while he was Mayor of London.

In 2013 he was pictured enjoying a meal with David Cameron and George Osborne at a lavish restaurant at the summit.

The trio enjoyed slap up meal at the Alte Post restaurant just hours before figures were released showing theirpolicies were on the verge of hurling Britain into a triple-dip recession.

As hard working families struggled to bear the impact of Tory austerity, the cheapest bottle of wine in the restaurant was £41.

David Cameron, Boris Johnson and George Osborne at a costly restaurant in Davos (Twitter / @benstewart999)

“You just have to chuck a snowball into a cocktail party at Davos and you’d hit someone with a sovereign wealth fund who would fund a piece of infrastructure,” Mr Johnson told the Telegraph the same year.

But this year the Prime Minister has decided attending the summit would be bad for his new push to appear as a man of the people.

He's now branding his administration the "the people’s government,” despite taking millions of pounds in funding from millionaires and billionaires.

Shortly before the election Mr Johnson's party were handed £1m by Peter Hargreaves, a billionaire financier who backs a no-deal Brexit and boasted "insecurity is fantastic".

The gift brought the Tories' total in high value donations to an eye-watering £12.2million in the first three weeks of the election campaign - including a handful of billionaires.

Mr Johnson once described his £250,000 columnist's salary as "chicken feed".

One government source reportedly said: "Our focus is on delivering for the people, not champagne with billionaires."

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