The Greater London Authority referred Mr Johnson over his ties to businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri on Friday. Allegations claim Ms Arcuri received special treatment owing to her friendship with Mr Johnson whilst he was Mayor of London. The Prime Minister denied any wrongdoing and insisted he acted “in the normal way”.
The referral comes over claims Ms Arcuri’s company gained several thousand pounds in sponsorship grants.
The Californian joined several Mr Johnson led trade missions.
The Greater London Authority says it made the referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) “so it can assess whether or not it is necessary to investigate the former mayor of London for the criminal offence of misconduct in public office.
“The IOPC will now consider if it is necessary for the matter to be investigated.”
The Mayor of London is ex officio the police and crime commissioner for the Metropolitan Police.
The Greater London Authority monitoring officer wrote to Mr Johnson: “The conduct matter relates to your time as mayor of London between 2008 and 2016, so the IOPC is involved.
“During this time it has been brought to my attention that you maintained a friendship with Ms Jennifer Arcuri and as a result of that friendship allowed Ms Arcuri to participate in trade missions and receive sponsorship monies in circumstances when she and her companies could not have expected otherwise to receive those benefits.”
Number 10 responded to the development: “The prime minister, as Mayor of London, did a huge amount of work when selling our capital city around the world, beating the drum for London and the UK.
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The allegations first emerged in The Sunday Times on the weekend and Ms Arcuri is believed to have travelled to Malaysia, Singapore, New York and Tel Aviv.
It is understood she was originally turned down for the trips to Malaysia and Singapore but re-applied under different companies.
She was rejected from the New York trip but went on her own volition to attend some events.
Mr Johnson’s office intervened to allow her to travel to Tel Aviv.
Mrs Arcuri paid for her own flight and settled the hotel bill.
Mr Johnson confirmed he would comply with an order from the London Assembly to explain his links to Ms Arcuri.
He did insist: “But on this particular matter, I think they are barking up the wrong tree.”
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Under-Secretary Matt Warman confirmed the Government have launched a “review” into a £100,000 award to Ms Arcuri’s Hacker House training company in February.
He said it had been an “open, transparent and competitive process”.
