It appears that there is no end to Boris Johnson’s partying shenanigans while he was Prime Minister of Britain and now he is accused of overspending. The former PM took an entourage of 24 people out for a meal and drinks and happily put it on a government credit card.
The dinner treat was apparently during the United Nations General Assembly on September 21, 2021. In fact the Labour Party is speculating that it was Liz Truss’ official credit card that footed the bill. Truss had then been his Foreign Secretary for about a week or so.
Overspending PM
According to a report in The Mirror, the bill came up to a cool £4,445.07 at New York’s Smith and Wollensky restaurant. This is another example of overspending.
Labour’s Deputy leader Angela Rayner said; “Taxpayers have been left picking up the bill for the last two Prime Ministers excesses. While families are sick with worry struggling to make ends meet, this waste of public money is obscene.
“Liz Truss must explain why her departmental procurement card was used to shell out for this banquet at the British people’s expense and come clean on her own involvement. Today’s Conservatives spend taxpayers money with reckless abandon while Labour treat it with the respect it deserves,” said Rayner.
Foreign Office minister David Rutley justified the expense saying, “Expenditure was subject to normal FCDO controls and an appropriate use of public money.”
Johnson has been the subject of much controversy with former Commons speaker John Bercow saying that he is “immoral, unethical, unfocused.”
Bercow said he was the worst prime minister he had ever seen “by a country mile”.
“I didn’t think he was fit for office, I thought he was immoral, unethical, unfocused, utterly devoid of any coherent vision or plan for the country. He is I think without doubt, the worst public speaker of any prime minister I’ve ever heard. I’ve never known anybody so fumbling. He made one good speech.”
In another report it was alleged that Johnson had used a distant millionaire relative to act as a guarantor for an £800,000 credit facility while he was in Downing Street. Canadian businessman Sam Blyth who is worth 50 million dollars, is a distant cousin and had agreed to be guarantor for the then PM. The credit facility was supposedly to help with Johnson’s day-to-day expenses.
A question of ethics
According to a report in The Sunday Times using Blyth as guarantor was signed off by the Cabinet Office and propriety and ethics team since there was no conflict of interest or appearance of conflict of interest.
The Guardian reports that during his tenure as PM he was said to be struggling on a £164,000 salary even though he was given two homes, the flat and the country retreat at Chequers.
Since leaving office he has made more than a million pounds through speeches. He has also been given a one million pound donation by Thailand based crypto investor Christopher Harborne.