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Sunak insists donations system ‘transparent’ after Johnson receives £1m from former Brexit Party backer

13 Jan 2023 2 minute read
Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, Image by Leon Neal, PA Images

Rishi Sunak has defended the system for declaring MPs’ donations but did not offer any comment after Boris Johnson received £1 million from a Tory donor.

The former prime minister, who was forced from office last summer, recorded a donation of £1 million from Christopher Harborne to the Office of Boris Johnson Ltd in the latest update to the MPs’ Register of Interests.

The scale of the donation has reignited speculation that Mr Johnson still harbours ambitions to continue his political career.

Mr Harborne was among the donors who helped bankroll the Brexit Party and has also donated to the Conservatives.

The private limited company established by Mr Johnson does not carry out commercial business and solely functions as a private office to support him as a former prime minister.

Asked whether such a donation is “appropriate”, Mr Sunak said he was not aware of the details.

“In general we have procedures in place to make sure all donations are declared transparently, which I’m sure is the case here,” the Prime Minister said.

Safe seat

It comes as The Times newspaper reported that Mr Johnson, who currently represents the marginal Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency, could be planning to seek a truce with Mr Sunak in exchange for a safer seat at the next general election.

But Mr Sunak told broadcasters during a visit to Scotland: “I think the former prime minister has declared his intention to stand in his current seat in Uxbridge.”

A spokesperson for Mr Johnson also rejected any suggestion he could be seeking a different seat, saying: “This is untrue. Boris Johnson is fully supporting the Government and is standing in Uxbridge and South Ruislip at the next election.”

Since leaving office last September, Mr Johnson has declared more than £1 million in speaking fees.

In December, he recorded around £300,000 for two separate speeches.


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hdavies15
hdavies15
1 year ago

Rishi just as bent as Boris, just in a slightly different way. Superficially all meek and nice but he’s a real deviant manipulator.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
1 year ago

What a picture of probity…

Both have criminal records from their time together in that den of iniquity, Downing St.

Both are surrounded by the ghosts of hundreds of thousands of our fellow countrymen and women…

Both have no liking for the population of these islands…

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
1 year ago
Reply to  Mab Meirion

Not featured on here yet but 90 years after the ‘Kinder Scout Trespass’ of 1932, a Devon ‘hedgefund’ landowner, at no doubt great expense, has won a long-running court case against the national Park to stop wild-campers from star-gazing on his Dartmoor estate…

Windy
Windy
1 year ago
Reply to  Mab Meirion

Proof that the so called privileged part of our society look and plan ahead when keeping the rest of us trying to survive the present

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
1 year ago

Can any of his constituents confirm that he has done any work at all for which the tax payers of the land pay him handsomely, if not how can he be censured for this fraud…

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
1 year ago

One thing all Tory PMs agree on, the RAF beats the train every time…

Kerry Davies
Kerry Davies
1 year ago

Do these reptiles pay tax on this unearned income?
I know that donors, especially non-doms, have a loophole specially created to stop them paying tax.

Last edited 1 year ago by Kerry Davies

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