Boris Johnson is set to make a grovelling apology over withholding details of who paid to refurbish his Downing Street flat as he attempts to wriggle out of another Tory sleaze scandal.
The Prime Minister is expected to make a “humble and sincere” apology for not handing over crucial text messages on the matter to the independent Standards Commissioner because they were on an old phone.
Johnson will use the excuse that not releasing the messages between him and a big party donor were a muddle not a fiddle as he publishes his exchanges with sleaze watchdog Lord Geidt.
The independent adviser on ministerial standards had threatened to resign after it emerged a key WhatsApp exchange was not handed over to his inquiry.
Johnson is likely to be cleared again of breaching ministerial rules over the funding of the redecoration even though he told the inquiry he had no idea donor Lord Brownlow had paid for the £52,000 refurb of the No 11 flat where he lives with wife Carrie.
Geidt had originally cleared Johnson of breaking the ministerial code over the undeclared donation as the PM said he was not aware of how the party funding had been secured.
But last month the Electoral Commission revealed the PM had sent Tory peer Lord Brownlow a WhatsApp message in November 2020 “asking him to authorise further, at that stage unspecified, refurbishment works on the residence”.
The investigation prompted Lord Geidt to demand clarification from No 10 amid claims he had been misled by the Prime Minister.
In letters between the PM and Geidt Johnson will reportedly say the reason he did not disclose the message before was that he had changed his mobile number, and therefore the WhatsApp message was on his old phone.
Ahead of the letters being published the Prime Minister’s official spokesman declined to say whether Johnson has apologised to Lord Geidt.
Lord Geidt previously cleared the Prime Minister of breaching the code in relation to the funding of the flat refurbishment.
But the Electoral Commission fined the Conservatives £17,800 after it found the party had not followed the law over donations by Lord Brownlow to help cover the renovations, with costs exceeding £112,500.
The watchdog said the Tories had failed to “accurately report a donation and keep a proper accounting record” of the money handed over by the peer in October 2020.
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