Boris Johnson called the row over his Downing Street refurbishment a “farrago of nonsense” despite a formal Electoral Commission investigation, as No 10 confirmed its own inquiry would not be published in full. Speaking to reporters on Thursday about allegations that he solicited donations to cover £58,000 worth of works to his flat, Johnson said there was not “anything to see here”. The prime minister said he would cooperate fully with the investigation, after the watchdog said there were “reasonable grounds” to suspect an offence had been committed in the funding of the flat. It will seek to establish who initially paid for the work and whether any donation was properly declared. “We will comply with whatever they want and I don’t think there is anything to see here or to worry about,” Johnson said. “But what we are doing is focusing on the stuff that really matters.” Pressed on whether he had full confidence in the Electoral Commission, Johnson said: “Of course. With great respect, I don’t think that this is the number one issue … by several orders of magnitude.” Johnson declined to commit to immediately publishing in full any findings from the newly appointed independent adviser on ministers’ interests, Christopher Geidt, who is carrying out his own review of whether any donations were properly declared. A No 10 spokesman said Lord Geidt would be “publishing the findings of his review, as has been the case previously” rather than the full investigation. Labour’s Rachel Reeves, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, said it was not good enough for only the findings to be released. Labour has called for Geidt to be given independent powers to launch investigations and recommend sanctions – a power that still ultimately lies with Johnson. “This is exactly why the independent adviser for ministers’ interests needs to have the power to trigger and publish investigations into breaches of the ministerial code,” Reeves said. “The prime minister must publish the Geidt report into the Downing Street refurbishment in full, otherwise he is once again marking his own homework, and seriously driving down standards and accountability.
“The Tories are playing a dangerous game by not halting the sleaze engulfing their government, and distracting from important issues like clearing the backlog of operations facing our NHS and reducing crime.” On Thursday, Johnson argued, in a letter to the chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, Lord Evans, that he “cannot and would not wish” to give up the power to oversee which investigations are launched. Evans had recommended the power be handed over to the adviser. “That vital responsibility is quite properly mine alone and, as an elected politician, one for which I am ultimately accountable to the electorate,” Johnson said in his letter. During his interview, Johnson also insisted he was a fan of the retailer John Lewis, when asked about reports he and his fiancee, Carrie Symonds, had rejected the furnishings left in the No 11 flat by his predecessor Theresa May. In a Tatler magazine piece, allies of Symonds reportedly called it a “John Lewis nightmare”. Johnson said: “The one thing I object to in this whole farrago of nonsense is I love John Lewis. But what I will say is what people want this government to do is focus on their priorities.”