Officers on the authorities’s spending watchdog are inspecting the controversial choice to offer £220,000 of taxpayers’ cash to fund Boris Johnson’s authorized defence for the inquiry into his Partygate denials.
The Nationwide Audit Workplace (NAO) has but to determine whether or not to mount a proper investigation, however considered one of its administrators is planning to talk to the Cupboard Workplace about it.
On high of the six-figure price range already established, sources have additionally indicated more cash might be put aside to cowl the previous prime minister’s authorized recommendation, given the privileges committee’s investigation might drag on into subsequent month.
The revelations got here as Johnson issued a contemporary defence of his actions as PM throughout lockdown, insisting: “I believed what we have been doing was throughout the guidelines.”
Keir Starmer laid into Johnson for counting on taxpayers to foot the invoice incurred throughout a long-running investigation into whether or not he misled parliament by denying any Covid guidelines have been damaged in No 10, earlier than swathes of fines for unlawful events have been handed out.
The Labour chief stated he “couldn’t fairly imagine it” and urged Rishi Sunak at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday to “put his foot down” and inform Johnson that as “he made the mess, he can decide up the invoice”.
The Cupboard Workplace gave the inexperienced gentle to an preliminary £129,000 contract for authorized recommendation in August 2022 with the agency Peters & Peters, which Johnson has used to assist defend himself because the begin of the privileges committee’s investigation final summer season.
Attributable to delays getting the federal government handy over info requested by the seven-member committee, which has a Conservative majority however a Labour chair, the contract has been prolonged till 28 February and the price range raised to £220,000.
Tom Brake, the director of Unlock Democracy and a former Liberal Democrat MP, wrote to the NAO asking if it was inside its remit to research whether or not the spending had been a “wise and legit use of public cash”.
In a reply seen by the Guardian, the NAO director with accountability for the monetary audit of the Cupboard Workplace stated that they had contacted the the division to “request a gathering to acquire extra details about any preparations for the authorized companies”.
The assembly was scheduled to happen this week, and the NAO director stated they’d assessment any related documentation offered by the Cupboard Workplace and supply a fuller response afterwards.
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy chief, stated it “rings alarm bells” and accused Sunak’s authorities of “writing a clean cheque for the disgraced prime minister’s authorized fund”.
She added: “Ministers should come clear on the character of this murky authorized contract, and clarify each who this association was agreed by and why it has been allowed to proceed unchecked.”
Brake stated there was “robust proof” Johnson misled parliament over Partygate.
He instructed the Guardian: “In these circumstances, and with public funds underneath big stress, the taxpayer shouldn’t underwrite his open-ended defence authorized prices. Thankfully for Johnson, because of his current extra-parliamentary actions, he can afford to pay for them himself.”
An NAO spokesperson stated a question had been obtained from a member of the general public referring to its audit of Cupboard Workplace accounts. “We’re in search of additional info in response to the correspondence and can be contemplating the matter as a part of our audit,” they added.
The Cupboard Workplace defended the concept of taxpayers footing Johnson’s authorized recommendation prices, saying: “There’s a longtime precedent throughout a number of administrations that former ministers could also be supported with authorized illustration after they’ve left workplace when issues relate to their time and conduct as a minister.”
Sources have indicated that the £220,000 price range for Johnson’s authorized recommendation might be elevated once more, given the contract expires on 28 February however the privileges committee has but to complete gathering all oral proof, start public hearings or begin writing its report.
Johnson on Wednesday stated he was being “respectful” of the privileges committee, because it continues to look into his denials from the dispatch field that any Covid guidelines have been breached earlier than affirmation of law-breaking events got here from Scotland Yard.
He gave a uncommon interview to considered one of his fiercest supporters, the Conservative MP Nadine Dorries, for a brand new present on TalkTV she is going to entrance.
Johnson stated: “Anyone who thinks I used to be knowingly going to events that have been breaking lockdown guidelines in No 10, after which knowingly overlaying up events that have been illicit that different individuals have been going to, that’s all strictly for the birds. And if anyone thinks like that they’re out of their thoughts.”
He admitted he needed to “await this factor to conclude”, and added: “What I might say is that all of us thought what we have been doing – or definitely, I believed what we have been doing – was throughout the guidelines. And what we definitely thought was that we have been working blindingly onerous on some huge priorities for the nation.”
Pointing to the federal government’s work throughout Covid, Johnson stated he had been centered on “getting that vaccine rollout organised” and “pondering desperately about methods to … ramp up testing and all the remainder of it”.
After leaving No 10, Johnson has seen his revenue rocket on account of becoming a member of the talking circuit, an advance fee for his memoirs and different visits and articles. Since October 2022, he has declared earnings of £2,296,905 – on high of his MP’s wage.