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Boris Johnson was accused Saturday by a former attorney general of being a “integrity void,” as conservative donors expressed concern over new allegations about the prime minister’s conduct.
Criticism of Dominic Grieve, a former Conservative attorney general, followed hard attack on Johnson by former Prime Minister Dominic Cummings, who accused him of falling “far below the standards of competition and integrity the country deserves.”
Grieve focused on Cummings’ accusation that Johnson wanted donors to “secretly pay for the renovation” of his 10th Downing Street apartment, and now Labor demanded to see all correspondence related to the work.
The former attorney general said it was “just an illustration of the chaos Johnson seems to be causing in turn.”
Grieve, who Johnson was ousted from the Conservative party in 2019 for his views on Brexit, told BBC Today that the prime minister was “a vacuum of integrity”.
Downing Street insists that all rules on rehabilitation work, overseen by Johnson’s partner Carrie Symonds, were observed and that “all notifiable donations are declared and published in a transparent manner.”
On Friday the government said “the costs of a wider reform this year have been personally borne by the prime minister”.
The Labor Party has called for a full investigation. Steve Reed, secretary of Labor’s shadow communities, said: “We don’t know how much was spent or whether a donor got something in return.”
Cummings said a bloc on Friday he had told Johnson that “his plans to secretly pay donors for renewal were unethical, foolish, possibly illegal, and almost certainly breached the rules on proper disclosure of political donations.”
Cummings posted the blog after claiming by Downing Street that he had been responsible for a series of leaks. Johnson and the brains of his 2016 Brexit victory and the 2019 Conservative election victory are now locked in a public confrontation.
The prime minister has a lot to lose if his former adviser continues to make accusations (backed by evidence or emails) about what happened between Cummings’ arrival in Downing Street in July 2019 and his effective dismissal in November of 2020.
Downing Street’s surprise decision Friday to fight Cummings (identifying him as an alleged loser) has created an asymmetrical fight between a former adviser with many secrets to tell and little to lose and the country’s top incumbent.
A senior party figure said, “Boris can’t win this fight, why did it start? They should have risen above it and ignored Dom. Now we’ll have weeks of ‘he said, he said.’
Another of the party’s financial sponsors warned, “This could get out of hand very quickly. We don’t need it just as we enter crucial local elections.” Downing Street tried to end the row Friday night, but the damage is already there. he had done.
Since Cummings ’No. 10 departure in November, Johnson has been worried about what his former assistant chief could do. In recent weeks, private rapprochement efforts have taken place without success.
Ben Elliot, co-chair of the Conservative party, was appointed to speak with Cummings to achieve peace and prevent leaks of harmful revelations about Johnson and his operation on Downing Street.
According to a Conservative official who knew the situation, Elliot’s efforts failed to win around the former aide. “Ben exchanged a whole series of texts with Dom trying to get him to step aside again. Instead, he only threatened to blow it all up, ”the person said.
Two main dangers stand out. The first is that Cummings provides more details of Johnson annulling political conventions or allegedly violating the rules.
Johnson suspended parliament in 2019 during the Brexit crisis, an action overturned by the Supreme Court, and said he was willing to break international legislation on Brexit in 2020.
His convincing election victory and the Conservative Party’s large opinion poll on Labor may suggest that the public is not too worried. Friday said the public did not “give a damn” about who was leaking government secrets.
The second danger is that Cummings, who will give a statement to MPs next month on the management of the Covid government, will lift the lid on Johnson’s alleged weak leadership in the midst of the crisis.
The leak of plans for a second national blockade last November was seen by some as an attempt to ensure Johnson – who had provisionally agreed to the move on October 30 – did not change his mind.
Cummings insists he was not the weakest, claiming he was Henry Newman, No. 10 adviser and ally of Michael Gove. Downing Street officials have insisted Cummings was responsible for the leak.
Both Cummings and Newman wanted the blockade and the episode suggests that someone feared Johnson would lose his temper. “It’s well known that he hesitated before,” a senior conservative said.
Meanwhile, Johnson’s special envoy to the Gulf, Lord Udny-Lister, is leaving his role and leaving the government, a Downing Street spokesman said in an email statement Friday afternoon.
The departure of Udny-Lister, first reported by the Daily Telegraph, follows a series of revelations about the adviser’s links to the private sector while working for the government.
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