The allegations over Boris Johnson’s links with the US businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri while he was London mayor have been “blown out of all proportion” and are politically motivated, the environment secretary, Theresa Villiers, has said.
The prime minister has been referred to the Independent Office of Police Conduct by the monitoring officer of the Greater London Authority. The IOPC will assess whether Johnson should face a criminal investigation for misconduct in public office.
Villiers told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think this whole thing has been blown out of all proportion. The prime minister is very clear that proprieties were observed. This seems to be pretty obviously a politically motivated complaint.
“The prime minister has been clear there is nothing to see here. I do feel this is a distraction and it is people seeking to use the complaints process in a highly political way.”
However, Jeremy Corbyn, rejected this notion. “A wholly independent assessment has looked at evidence of the payments made by the mayor’s office to one particular company and says there are serious questions to answer,” the Labour leader said.
“I think the job of the prime minister is to answer those questions. When you hold public office, and you’re also the police commissioner for London, you’ve got to be very careful about how you spread that public money out.
“He’s given it to a company that has questions to answer and I think the prime minister should agree now and cooperate with the Greater London Authority inquiry.”
An official from the GLA, London’s devolved government, has written to the prime minister noting claims he had “on more than one occasion” used his position as mayor to “benefit and reward” Arcuri, a tech entrepreneur.
“Subject to any explanation provided by you, these matters give rise to a suggestion that there has been a failure to safeguard the public purse and if so that amounts to a significant breach of public trust,” said the letter, from the office of the authority’s monitoring officer.
“These are the ingredients of the offence of misconduct in a public office.”
The IOPC investigates complaints of misconduct connected to police in England and Wales. Johnson was referred to the body because while he was mayor, he was the head of the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, a role equivalent to being police and crime commissioner for the capital.
Speaking on the Today programme, the former chief constable of Greater Manchester police Sir Peter Fahy, said Johnson’s referral to the IOPC felt like it was “stretching the system”.
He said: “There is an anomaly that the mayor of London and the mayor of Greater Manchester are also the police and crime commissioners, which isn’t the situation in … other places. It does feel to be stretching the system a bit. There are other bodies that investigate misconduct in local government and that feels more appropriate to me.”
Fahy also spoke about the issue of protecting politicians during a potential general election. “There are certain individuals and politicians who are lightning rods for protesters,” he said.
A senior government source said Johnson was given no warning of the announcement. “This is a politically motivated attack. Due process has not been followed and the timing is overtly political.”
The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, tweeted: “It’s important to note that this was a decision by the GLA monitoring officer, who is a completely independent non-political official.”
