Boris Johnson claims people don't care if he asked a donor to fund his nanny

Shameless Boris Johnson has claimed people don’t care if a Tory donor was asked to pay for a nanny for his baby son.

The Prime Minister was questioned by journalists for the first time today since the bizarre allegations emerged – marking a new twist in the “cash for curtains” saga over the revamp of his Downing Street flat.

But he refused twice to say if a Conservative donor had been approached to fund childcare for his son Wilfred.

Instead the PM claimed most of the British public did not care about the “trivia”. It comes days after a poll found 42% believe he is “corrupt”.

He told reporters: “I can tell you that all this kind of stuff is, in my view, exclusively for the interest of the Westminster bubble.”

He added: “I’m finding that what people in this election want to talk about in this election is the issues that matter to them.”

The nanny claims were reported by the Sunday Times, which claimed the twice-divorced PM is struggling to survive on his £157,372-a-year salary.

An unnamed donor is alleged to have moaned to an MP: “I don’t mind paying for leaflets but I resent being asked to pay to literally wipe the Prime Minister’s baby’s bottom.”

A No10 spokeswoman said: “The Prime Minister has covered the cost of all childcare.”

But she failed to say if a Tory donor was initially asked to pay for a nanny for Wilfred – who he had with fiancee Carrie Symonds last year and is at least his sixth child.

And she did not respond when asked if the PM paid for the original bill or had reimbursed somebody else.

Mr Johnson has been accused of borrowing £58,000 from a Tory donor to pay for a revamp of the Downing Street flat.

Labour have demanded the Prime Minister declare anyone he has borrowed or taken money from to avoid conflicts of interest.

The independent advisor on ministers’ interests is investigating whether he broke the Ministerial Code on transparency.

The Electoral Commission, which polices donations, is also probing whether offences were committed.

Today Mr Johnson also refused to deny claims there was a second invoice, beyond the original £58,000.

He replied: “All this kind of stuff is absolutely not relevant to this campaign.

“And what I think the people of this country want to know, is who has the policies, who is actually talking about the issues that matter to the people of this country, and we’re focused on improving our NHS, on making our streets safer, and above all, in rolling out the vaccine campaign and going down the road map in a cautious but we hope irreversible way and delivering change.

“I know that people want to focus on on trivia, but I’m focusing on the issues that matter.”

Mr Johnson spoke as he visited Hartlepool ahead of this week’s by-election in a bid to overturn Labour’s 3,595 majority.

He said: “What are we doing to put more police out on the street to fight crime? And here in Teesside, we’ve put another 185 police officers on the street.

“What are we doing to invest in our NHS? What are we doing to roll out the jabs, the vaccines, that are making such a difference to people’s lives? What are we doing to make sure that we can open up the economy in a safe way on May 17 and then on June 21?

“What are we doing to take the country forward? I think those are the fundamental issues.

“I know other parties want to focus on all sorts of trivia, but those are the issues that I am focussed on.”