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.
Acoba sent Johnson five specific questions about his relationship with Better Earth, the consultancy firm looking for work with the Saudi government, and his relationship with Bia Advisory, the venture seeking the UAE’s billion-dollar investment.
The watchdog wanted to know if he had mentioned the companies when he had spoken with the Saudi ministers, including the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, and Khaldoon al-Mubarak, the chief executive of one of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth funds.
Johnson said he had not started work with Better Earth until Acoba had given the green light for him to join it, and that Bia Advisory had never been set up as a company. He did not address their questions about whether he might have mentioned the ventures to the foreign government representatives.
Acoba was frustrated by Johnson’s refusal to give straight answers. The watchdog tried to give him another week to answer and appealed to his standing as a former prime minister and a “reasonable expectation that you would respond fully and factually to my questions to dispel the suggestion that you acted in a manner contrary to your obligations under the rules”.
When he was prime minister, Johnson issued his version of the ministerial code. It included the very rules he has now been found to have repeatedly breached.
His foreword to the code said: “The precious principles of public life enshrined in this document – integrity, objectivity, accountability, transparency, honesty and leadership in the public interest – must be honoured at all times.”
Johnson, however, opted not to engage with the watchdog’s substantive questions.
Doverty, the Acoba chair, said it was “highly disappointing” that Johnson refused to substantively deny the allegations he had breached the rules.
It adds to a litany of earlier violations by Johnson. They include him asking Acoba to approve a retrospective application as a £275,000-a-year columnist for the Telegraph; asking Acoba to approve an application as a £500,000-a-year columnist for the Daily Mail, 30 minutes before it was announced; and refusing to answer Acoba’s questions about a meeting with Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, and a hedge-fund manager who later paid him £240,000.
Acoba has used the sole mechanism it has to enforce the rules: a letter to the Cabinet Office.
Writing to Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, Doverty said: “Mr Johnson is aggrieved that Acoba sought to investigate these allegations, given how the information behind them was obtained.” But she said there was a public interest in investigating any breach of the rules and a duty to do so.
She concluded: “Mr Johnson’s lack of cooperation with Acoba and failure to deny the allegations has led me to report this to you as a breach of the government’s rules.”
A government spokesperson said: “As announced in July, new arrangements for the administration of the business appointment rules will take effect from Monday 13 October, as part of our commitment to restore trust and ensure the government is in the service of working people.
“As part of the new arrangements, Acoba will be closed, and former ministers found to have seriously breached the rules may be asked to repay any ministerial severance payment.”
However, a source indicated that no further action would be taken against Johnson, who is no longer subject to the business appointment rules, for the breach.
Johnson has been contacted for comment.
