Lawmakers want answers about PM's spending

Lawmakers from the United Kingdom's opposition Labour Party are demanding answers after Prime Minister Boris Johnson was accused of having considered letting donors pay for the refurbishment of his Downing Street home.

The allegation was made on Friday by Dominic Cummings, Johnson's former chief advisor, and followed recent scandals in which ministers and Conservative Party officials have been accused of accepting money or favors from businesspeople.

The opposition Labour Party said a senior government minister must answer lawmakers' questions about the claims.

The BBC quoted Labour Party leader Keir Starmer as saying: "If there is nothing to see here — whether it is the refurb of No 10, whether it is the dodgy contracts, whether it is the privileged access — if there is nothing to see, publish everything, have a full inquiry."

After the government said Johnson paid for much of the work on his home himself, Labour said it wanted to know whether the money he spent had been loaned to him.

The row over the apartment refurbishment erupted when Cummings, who had been one of Johnson's most trusted advisors before he lost his job in 2020, issued his first blog post since then. In it, he denied having leaked apparently incriminating text messages between Johnson and billionaire businessman James Dyson about taxation issues. He also denied claims that in November, he leaked details of England's second novel coronavirus lockdown.

But, having denied he put the government in the spotlight on those occasions, he went on to say that Johnson considered getting donors to pay for his refurbishments, and that he thought about getting someone to silence questions about a leak of information, because he feared it involved his partner, Carrie Symonds.

Cummings said those instances call into question the prime minister's "competence and integrity".

The Labour Party said the allegations were worrying enough for it to demand the chance to ask an urgent question on the issue in Parliament on Monday.

The Guardian newspaper quoted a spokesperson for the prime minister saying: "At all times, the government and ministers have acted in accordance with the appropriate codes of conduct and electoral law."

The spokesperson said Cabinet Office officials "have been engaged and informed throughout" and "official advice has been followed".

The spokesperson said all reportable donations have been transparently declared and published – either by the Electoral Commission or the House of Commons registrar.

Nicholas True, a Cabinet Office minister, said in response to a question in Parliament that prime ministers have an annual allowance of 30,000 pounds ($41,600) to spend on maintaining and furnishing the Downing Street apartment.

He said no work was carried out in 2019-20 because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, and there is, as yet, no official record for this year.

But he was able to confirm that contractors have, this year, painted the home and sanded the floorboards.

He said "any costs of wider refurbishment in this year have been met by the prime minister personally".