Boris Johnson referred to police watchdog over links with Jennifer Arcuri
The police watchdog will decide whether or not to investigate Prime Minister Boris Johnson after it was alleged he gave favourable treatment to businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri during his time as London mayor.
Johnson was referred by the Greater London Authority on Friday and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) will consider whether it is necessary to look into whether a criminal offence of misconduct in public office was committed.
Johnson has denied any impropriety since the allegations came to fruition last weekend in the Sunday Times.
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The report claimed that Arcuri joined trade missions led by Johnson while mayor of London and that her company received sponsorship grants worth thousands of pounds.
The Greater London Authority’s monitoring officer said it had referred Johnson to the IOPC “so it can assess whether or not it is necessary to investigate the former mayor of London for the criminal offence of misconduct in public office”.
It said it has recorded a “conduct matter” against the Prime Minister, which indicates a criminal offence may have been committed, but does not mean it has been proved in any way.
“The IOPC will now consider if it is necessary for the matter to be investigated.”
In a letter to the PM setting out the referral, the monitoring officer says: “The conduct matter relates to your time as mayor of London between 2008 and 2016.
“During this time it has been brought to my attention that you maintained a friendship with Ms Jennifer Arcuri and as a result of that friendship allowed Ms Arcuri to participate in trade missions and receive sponsorship monies in circumstances when she and her companies could not have expected otherwise to receive those benefits.”
The IOPC is involved because the role of London mayor is also to be London’s police and crime commissioner.
Responding to the referral, No 10 said: “The Prime Minister, as mayor of London, did a huge amount of work when selling our capital city around the world, beating the drum for London and the UK.
“Everything was done with propriety and in the normal way.”
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A senior government source told the BBC that the referral was “overtly political” and “a politically motivated attack”, coming days before the Tory party conference.
“No evidence of any allegations has been provided by the monitoring officer nor was the PM given any opportunity to respond to the monitoring officer prior to the publishing of a press release late on a Friday night,” the source said.
“The public and media will rightly see through such a nakedly political put-up job.”