THE RELATIONSHIP between a Tory peer and senior members of the government should be investigated, opposition politicians have claimed.
It comes after a series of text messages between the Prime Minister and Lord Brownlow were published yesterday as part of an ongoing probe into refurbishment of the Downing Street flat.
Critics say the messages show a “cosy” relationship between Mr Johnson and the peer, who was funding more than £100,000 of the luxury revamp, and has the potential to be a ‘cash for access’ case.
The funds, around £112,000 in total, were paid back by the Prime Minister after the financial arrangement was reported in the press in early 2021.
In the message exchange from November 2020, Mr Johnson refers to “GE 2” with Lord Brownlow then thanking him for his consideration of the project.
READ MORE: Boris Johnson chasisted over missing Whatsapps describing No.10 flat as 'a tip'
Further investigation has revealed that the peer then had a meeting with Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden to discuss plans for something called “Great Exhibition 2.0”.
Downing Street has insisted this project did not go ahead, and was abandoned in favour of what was initially called the Festival of Brexit, then changed to Festival UK and the Unboxed festival.
However Labour said the project should be investigated, arguing that it showed the peer gaining favourable access to ministers as a result of him paying for the PM’s refurbishment.
Shadow justice secretary Steve Reed said Labour has asked the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner to investigate the exchange.
Mr Reed said the text messages “matter immensely”, arguing that they show Lord Brownlow “appears to have access to the Prime Minister because he was paying for the flat renovations” at No.11 Downing Street.
He said: “If that is the case, that is corruption.
“And what we’re seeing here is a case of, potentially, cash for access where Lord Brownlow was given access to ministers to try and influence them over decisions of spending taxpayers’ money – that is why this matters so immensely.
“Those very cosy text messages show there was a quid pro quo in operation between the Prime Minister and Lord Brownlow, and we need to get to the absolute bottom of this.”
READ MORE: Tories fined over £52,000 undeclared donation for Boris Johnson's luxury Downing Street flat refurb
Asked why the messages are problematic given that the Great Exhibition was not given the go-ahead, Mr Reed replied: “The issue is not whether it happened, it is whether rich people can pay to get access to Government ministers to try and influence them over how they decide to spend taxpayers’ money.”
The SNP's deputy Westminster leader Kirsten Oswald said the exchange were evidence of government corruption.
She said: "Boris Johnson is stumbling from one scandal to the next. These damning revelations once again show that his government is driven by rampant corruption and cronyism.
"The Prime Minister may believe he dodged a bullet over Lord Geidt's inquiry, but these text messages shine a light on the cash for access scandal at the heart of Downing Street.
"In any other country or government, casual text exchanges between a Prime Minister and a party donor asking for cash for a lavish flat revamp in exchange for access to government and favours would be called out as blatant corruption."
Business minister Paul Scully said Mr Johnson had engaged in “appropriate communication” with Lord Brownlow – who was supposed to be heading up a charitable trust to take over the maintenance of the No 11 flat – and that “nothing untoward” occurred.
In a WhatsApp message sent on November 29 2020, Conservative Party leader Mr Johnson asked Lord Brownlow if he would give his approval for interior designer Lulu Lytle to begin work.
He added: “Ps am on the great exhibition plan Will revert.”
The peer said he would sort the flat “ASAP”, adding: “Thanks for thinking about GE2”.
On January 18 2021, Lord Brownlow attended a meeting with Mr Dowden and representatives of the Albert Hall to discuss the peer’s Great Exhibition 2.0 proposal.
Downing Street has said the bid was not taken forward, although the Government is going ahead with Festival UK, which was first announced in 2018.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said the Tory peer’s suggestion was “dealt with in the same way” as a member of the public’s would have been “in that a department will look at it and take a view on it”.
Mr Scully told Times Radio: “Ministers get proposals all the time and what rightly happened was that this got pushed on to the Culture, Media and Sport Department (DCMS) where it sits.
“Lord Brownlow made his own approaches and it wouldn’t have just gone to the Prime Minister, but the important thing is it’s not gone ahead… so there’s nothing untoward that’s happening out of, you know, a few lines in a WhatsApp.”
READ MORE: Electoral Commission to probe Johnson's Downing Street flat refurbishment
Yesterday it emerged Mr Johnson had to issue a “humble and sincere apology” to his standards adviser, Lord Geidt, after he failed to inform him of the text message exchange with Lord Brownlow when he carried out an investigation into the funding of work last year.
The Prime Minister said he did not recall the exchanges and that the messages were on an old mobile phone which he no longer had access to.
Downing Street had hoped finally to draw a line under the matter after Lord Geidt said it would not have changed his conclusion that Mr Johnson did not breach the Ministerial Code, although he made clear his deep unhappiness at the way the issue had been handled.
Initially the Prime Minister said he did not know who was paying for the work and was unaware the funds were coming from Lord Brownlow.
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