Boris Johnson should resign if he broke ministerial rules over his Downing Street flat, the Scottish Tory leader has said.
The intervention by Douglas Ross came as the the prime minister continued to face questions over whether a Tory donor originally loaned him money to redecorate his official residence.
Pressed on whether Johnson should resign if he breached the ministerial code over the so-called “cash for curtains” scandal, Ross said: “Of course.
“I think people expect the highest standards of those in the highest office of the land and that’s why people are looking at the investigations that are ongoing and waiting for the answers to be heard.”
The prime minister receives an annual public grant of £30,000 to spend on his living quarters, but it has been claimed the final bill for the lavish revamp reached £200,000.
Johnson has maintained he “met the cost” of the refurbishment personally, but the Electoral Commission has launched an investigation into whether £58,000 was loaned to the PM.
Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said it was clear Johnson was “withholding information” from the public.
She told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “It’s appalling we are in a position where he won’t come clean about who loaned him money or gave him money, and what favours or promises may have been given in return.“We already know that this is a prime minister who frankly thinks that the rules don’t apply to him and his
Friends. He is quite happy for his cabinet ministers to break the ministerial code and then not resign, he is quite happy for his advisers to drive around the country with Covid in the middle of lockdown and not resign.
The PM lives at Number 11 Downing Street with his partner Carrie Symonds and their baby son Wilfred.
There were also fresh claims on Sunday that Johnson asked Tory donors fo fund childcare.
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab said he has “no idea” if this were true and dismissed the allegation as “tittle tattle”.
He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “I have no idea, you don’t have conversations like that with the PM. I can’t comment on every little bit of gossip that’s in the newspapers.
“The last thing you asked me about, I think, is an example of tittle tattle.”
Asked if there was a second invoice for refurbishments of the PM’s Downing Street flat settled directly with a supplier, he said: “As the prime minister has set out this week, he covered the cost himself, he’s followed all the relevant codes of conduct at all relevant times, he took official advice all along the way.
“There are three reviews now, I think, into this and I think the right thing for me to do is not add political commentary that could otherwise prejudice those reviews, but to respect the integrity of them, so I’m not going to offer you, I’m afraid, any more commentary, or if you like chatter, on the various different reports and speculation that I see in the Sunday papers.”Related...Why Boris Johnson’s Alleged Sleaze Matters Even If The Polls Don’t Move YetShould
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