Former Labour chancellor Alistair Darling was asked to handle Tory donations to fund Boris Johnson’s luxury refurbishment of the Prime Minister’s Downing Street flat.
In the latest twist in the funding scandal over who paid for the lavish £58,000 makeover of the Downing Street flat it was reported that Darling was asked to help set up a trust to finance the project.
Sky news reported that Downing Street approached Darling to ask for help setting up a trust to oversee the refurbishment of Boris Johnson’s private apartments.
The former Chancellor is said to have been told arrangements would mirror those of the White House and the trust would have been run by Tory donor Lord David Brownlow.
Darling, who lived above Downing Street when he was Gordon Brown’s chancellor, turned down the role amid fears that it would be a vehicle for donors to buy influence at the very heart of government in return for a peerage.
Darling informed Keir Starmer’s office of the decision and is reported not to have been explicitly told the refurbishment was of the PM’s personal living space, the flat above Number 11 Downing Street.
Labour accused the government of being “misleading” over claims they had “engagement” with the opposition over the refurbishment of the Number 10 flat last year.
Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth MP, the Shadow Health Secretary, said the flat scandal and comments attributed to Johnson about letting covid “rip” instead of locking down was an issue of integrity.
Ashworth said: “If he is prepared to lie about that, what else is he prepared to lie about?”
An e mail from Lord Brownlow’s was leaked to the Daily Mail claiming he had £58,000 to cover the payments the party has already made “on behalf of the soon-to-be-formed ‘Downing Street Trust - of which I have been made chairman”.
