Johnson found to have breached rules after refusing to answer specific questions about allegations published by the Guardian
Boris Johnson breached rules designed to stop the abuse of contacts and access made in public office, an ethics watchdog has found. Last month the Guardian published revelations about Johnson’s conduct since leaving office. The Boris Files, a trove of documents from the former prime minister’s private office seen by the Guardian, suggested he repeatedly broke rules forbidding him from exploiting for private gain contacts made in office. Leaked documents suggested Johnson secretly lobbied the UAE for a billion-dollar private venture, amid plans to use an influential contact he had repeatedly hosted in No 10, and used senior contacts in the Saudi government he had met as prime minister to pitch the services of a consultancy firm. After the Guardian’s stories were published, the Whitehall watchdog, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), wrote to Johnson asking him to explain what he had done for the companies. Johnson refused to answer specific questions or to provide factual denials to allegations of rule-breaking, while insisting all the rules had been followed at all times. His responses led Acoba’s chair, Isabel Doverty, to find him in breach of the rules. On 15 September, Johnson responded to Acoba’s queries to say the stories were “based on material illegally hacked by a hostile state actor. That may explain why they contain so many assertions that are either false or misleading.” He added: “The committee may rest assured that Acoba rules were followed at all times.” The Guardian has seen no evidence that the files contain false or misleading information. The data was obtained by Distributed Denial of Secrets, a US non-profit that archives data leaks. It has said it does not know the provenance of the leak.
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You'll never guess who wrote the ministerial code he's alleged to have breached.
