Why is there an Electoral Commission investigation into payments for the refurbishment of the prime minister’s Downing Street flat? Boris Johnson has spent an estimated £200,000 renovating the flat above No 11 Downing Street where he lives with his fiancee, Carrie Symonds, and their baby son, Wilfred. Reports suggest they wanted to replace Theresa May’s “John Lewis nightmare” with the upmarket designs of Lulu Lytle, known as “the saviour of British rattan”. Staff at the commission, which oversees political expenditure, are examining claims that Conservative party funds initially paid for the renovations, that the party may have loaned Johnson the money, and that cash was handed over by Tory donors including David Brownlow to pay for the work and set up a trust through which money could be funnelled. The commission launched its inquiry days after Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s former chief adviser, claimed in a blog that he had told the PM his “plans to have donors secretly pay for the renovation were unethical, foolish, possibly illegal”. Cummings has said he is willing to give evidence to the commission. Who exactly is being investigated? The Conservative party is under investigation, and not Johnson. If the commission finds that the party failed to declare a donation, which may or may not have come from Lord Brownlow, it has the power to impose a fine of up to £20,000. If it believes that the failure to declare the donation was intentional then the commission could refer its findings to the police, who could open a criminal investigation. Labour says Johnson could be dragged into the inquiry personally because he is a “regulated donee” and is obliged to provide details of any donation that could be considered for his personal benefit. The commission remains tight-lipped on this point. Which law could have been broken? The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 was introduced iafter scandals during the premierships of John Major and Tony Blair. It requires those who receive donations or loans to check that the donor is permitted and to report any donation to the Electoral Commission within a month. The duty to check and report is on the recipient, not the donor. What will the commission be looking for? Receipts, backed up by emails and social media messages, showing when, why and among whom money changed hands. Funds do not have to have been handed over for a donation to have taken place. If someone paid off a bill that Johnson owed to someone else, that counts as a donation. If someone paid off a bill Johnson owed to a third party but then required Johnson to repay the money, that is a loan covered by the law. If the commission proves that any of these transactions are connected to political activities, they are then considered to be registrable donations or loans and should have been publicly declared. Again, responsibility for any declaration is on the recipient, in this case allegedly the party. Donors can hand over any amount, and it is up to the recipient to ensure that any donation or loan is within the law. Who could be interviewed or asked to provide evidence? The list of potential witnesses is long and speculative. It is expected to include Brownlow, who told party officials in October that he had given them £58,000 to cover payments already made by the party on behalf of the trust, plus a separate £15,000 donation. Only the £15,000 was declared in commission records.
Cummings has already put himself forward as a potential witness and is likely to be called on. Others who may be called on to help the commission include Johnson and Symonds; Edward Lister, Johnson’s longest serving aide, who reportedly drew up a plan to set up a trust to cover the refurbishment cost; and Ben Elliot, the Conservative party co-chair who received emails – subsequently leaked – from Brownlow about his donations. Amanda Milling, the other Tory co-chair; Mike Chattey, the party’s head of fundraising, mentioned in other leaked emails; Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, who was asked to examine the plans for the formation of a Downing Street flat trust; and Helen MacNamara, the former chief of propriety and ethics in the Cabinet Office, who reportedly refused to authorise expenses for refurbishing the flat, could also be asked to help. Could it end up as a criminal inquiry? Possibly, but not likely. The commission rarely passes on cases to the police. In theory, a court could find that there has been “intentional concealment”, which would prompt the involvement of Scotland Yard. Previous police inquiries into No 10 have included the 2007 cash-for-honours scandal, when Tony Blair and his close advisers were questioned by police over claims that donations had been made in exchange for peerages. After a 16-month inquiry, no one faced charges, and the Metropolitan police were heavily criticised for their involvement.