UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson acted "unwisely" when he allowed a costly refurbishment of his Downing Street residence, a project that was initially paid for by a political donor, an official report said on Friday.
Mr Johnson faced intense media scrutiny over how the refurbishment, which reportedly cost in the region of £200,000 ($284,000), was financed.
On Friday the independent adviser on ministers’ interests, Christopher Geidt, published a report into the issue which cleared the prime minister of a conflict of interest or of breaching the ministerial code.
But the report was nevertheless critical of Mr Johnson.
“The prime minister – unwisely, in my view – allowed the refurbishment of the apartment at No 11 Downing Street to proceed without more rigorous regard for how this would be funded,” the report said.
It found that a Tory Party donor, David Brownlow, had settled an invoice for some of the refurbishment cost, but said Mr Johnson was unaware of this and later settled the full amount himself when he found out via media reports.
Mr Geidt said no conflict of interest had arisen.
“I have considered the nature of that support and am content that no conflict (or reasonably perceived conflict) arises as a result of these interests,” the report said.
“Having advised that the interests declared by the prime minister present no actual or perceived conflict, I consider them to be consistent with the provisions of the ministerial code.”
A breach of the ministerial code could have forced Mr Johnson to resign.
A spokesman for Mr Johnson’s office said: “Other than works funded through the annual allowance, the costs of the wider refurbishment of the flat are not being financed by taxpayers and have been settled by the prime minister personally.”
Separately, Britain’s Electoral Commission has launched an investigation into the funding of work on the prime minister’s apartment, saying there were grounds to suspect an offence had been committed.
Mr Geidt’s report also said that Health Secretary Matt Hancock had committed a “minor breach” of the ministerial code by failing to declare a shareholding in a company when it received a contract from the National Health Service.
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The Birkin bag is made by Hermès.
It is named after actress and singer Jane Birkin
Noone from Hermès will go on record to say how much a new Birkin costs, how long one would have to wait to get one, and how many bags are actually made each year.
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
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Our family matters legal consultant
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Founder: Ahmed Al Qubaisi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Founded: January 2019
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Sector: Technology/Social media
Funding to date: Estimated $300,000 from Hub71 in-kind support