Boris Johnson is under mounting pressure to explain how his private office complies with rules over taxpayer subsidies after further revelations about how his staff appear to be overseeing his global commercial operations.
A leak of data from the Office of Boris Johnson appears to show all three of his staff helping Johnson’s business and profit-making ventures.
The office is partly funded by the public duty costs allowance (PDCA), which rules say should only be used to support the public work of former prime ministers. Johnson said he had followed the rules.
Five other former prime ministers – Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May and Liz Truss – have released statements saying they fully comply with rules prohibiting the use of public funds for private business. It is understood Sunak does not claim the allowance.
Brown said there was now a need for the introduction of new rules that would require former prime ministers to publicly declare their business interests. There are growing calls for the National Audit Office, which scrutinises public spending, including the PDCA scheme for former prime ministers, to launch an inquiry.
Johnson did not directly respond to questions about the slew of revelations concerning his apparent attempts to monetise his time in Downing Street after stepping down as prime minister in September 2022.
They include business ventures in Venezuela, the UAE and Saudi Arabia involving individuals he met while prime minister.
In his first comments since the Guardian revealed details of the leak, Johnson denied suggestions he was misusing public funds. “This story is rubbish,” he said. “The PDCA has been used entirely in accordance with the rules. The Guardian should change its name to Pravda.”
On Tuesday, the Guardian revealed further details about the operations of Johnson’s private office. They suggest the former Conservative leader:
Secretly lobbied the UAE for a billion-dollar private venture in a potential breach of ethics rules. His work as a “principal adviser” for Bia Advisory, a “climate finance solutions” firm seeking backing from Abu Dhabi’s $300bn investment fund, involved courting a top Emirati official Johnson hosted in No 10 when he was prime minister.
Approached Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, on behalf of Evgeny Lebedev. The Evening Standard owner, whom Johnson made a peer, was seeking a business relationship between his newspaper and Musk, who bankrolled Donald Trump’s ascent to the White House.
Secured contracts with a combined total of more than £850,000 in separate deals with GB News and Associated Newspapers, the owner of the Daily Mail. GB News suggested some of the information was incorrect but confirmed an ongoing arrangement with Johnson.
Earned more than £5m from less than two years of paid speeches, for some of which he charged $350,000 (£259,000). The 34 speeches include a conference leadership in Delhi, a blockchain symposium in Singapore and a bizarre turn as the headline act at the 50th birthday party of a German pharmaceuticals company boss.
The speeches, like much of the material in the leak, raise questions for Johnson about the manner in which he has been trading on his time in No 10 for private gain, in a possible conflict of interest.
He was paid $250,000 (£185,000) to give a speech in California in May 2024 to an American private equity firm, Clearlake Capital. Two years earlier, in May 2022, Johnson’s government had authorised the £2.5bn sale of Chelsea Football Club to, among others, Clearlake. (A source at the company said the two events were entirely unconnected.)
There are also questions over whether, in return for cash, he is divulging views or information former prime ministers typically keep to themselves.
Johnson’s audiences have been treated to his views on Barack Obama (“the most inert, invertebrate president we’ve had for a long, long time”) and Vladimir Putin (“like the fat boy in Dickens, he wants to make your flesh creep”), as well as private anecdotes about the late Queen Elizabeth II, including a time he said she advised him to talk to birds.
The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, which monitors the activities of former ministers and senior civil servants, said it would look into Johnson’s newly revealed contacts and income since leaving office.
A senior Cabinet Office source confirmed that Johnson claimed funds under the scheme to pay for staff salaries in his private office. Official data shows he has claimed £182,000 in PDCA payments since leaving government.
However, the Liberal Democrats have called on the NAO to launch a formal investigation into potential misuse of public funds. The NAO has the power to examine the paperwork that is submitted by former prime ministers to claim their allowance.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister in charge of public standards, said Johnson had questions to answer over the revelations. Speaking to the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast, Thomas-Symonds said: “Boris Johnson has serious questions to answer about his conduct in Covid. And on previous evidence, his behaviour since leaving office has been a disgrace.”
The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, defended Johnson’s right to undertake lucrative work after he had left office. “I think that people should be able to earn money when they leave politics,” she told GB News.
