BORIS Johnson’s ex-model pal sensationally broke her silence last night to insist the PM never gave her special treatment – but DODGED questions over their alleged affair.
Pole-dancing tech businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri furiously denied being unfairly awarded taxpayer cash when she was close to the former London mayor.
It’s alleged that Boris may have bent rules to help the American entrepreneur win £126,000 in government grants for her businesses.
She was also taken on three foreign trade missions led by Mr Johnson while he was in City Hall.
And four pals of the 34-year-old claimed this weekend she had told them she had a sexual relationship with Mr Johnson, 55, while he was married to Marina Wheeler.
But after being spotted at a Los Angeles beauty salon yesterday, Ms Arcuri branded scrutiny of her relationship with the Prime Minister as an “orchestrated attack”.
She told the Daily Mail she had “every right” to go on the jet-set trade missions with Boris when she lived and worked in London.
I’m being used as collateral. All the allegations are false
Jennifer Arcuri
And responding to claims she may have been unfairly rewarded taxpayer funding, Ms Arcuri blasted: “I’m being used as collateral.
“All the allegations are false.”
Pals of Californian Ms Arcuri have said she’s been laying low with extended relatives elsewhere in the US since the scandal broke 11 days ago.
But she was seen near her home trying on products at LA’s Beauty Society salon and chatting with its owner, her friend Jeannie Lorin.
DODGES AFFAIR QUESTION
When asked for her reaction to allegations had an affair with then-married Boris, Ms Arcuri dodged the question and hit back at claims her Innotech business unfairly benefited from his help.
She said: “I had every right to be on those trips as a legitimate businesswoman and stand by everything that happened because these allegations are completely false.
“This is an orchestrated attack on me, absolutely.
“Someone has gone to great lengths to put together a massive attack and I stand by the legitimacy of my business.
“I am in fact a legitimate businesswoman.”
‘PERSECUTED’
She went on to suggest she is being unfairly hounded, saying: “It’s such a shame to see successful businesswomen, or just businesswomen in general, be persecuted.”
But she added that she has received a surprising amount of support, “because women see through these attacks and they know the narrative.”
Ms Arcuri was said to be “very close” to Boris between 2012 and 2015 – with the married politician making regular visits to her East London flat.
After the claims emerged, Ms Arcuri reportedly told pals that Boris only made trips to the posh pad – which had a dancing pole – for private “technology lessons”.
She moved to California last year with her British partner Matthew Hickey and their young daughter.
PM’S SILENCE
Her comments come after Mr Johnson’s repeated refusal to deny he had an affair with the American former model.
And The Prime Minister insisted there was “no impropriety” about taxpayer grants awarded to a tech company run by Ms Arcuri.
The storm comes as Mr Johnson was separately forced to deny groping a female journalist Charlotte Edwardes.
He’s said claims he squeezed Ms Edwardes’ thigh at a lunch hosted by The Spectator when he was its editor 20 years ago were not true.
But Boris also admitted he had “no memory whatsoever” of the meal.
Yesterday, one of his ex-mistresses Petronella Wyatt rushed to the PM’s defence to say he always respected women.
She told the Today programme: “I worked with Boris Johnson for four years nearly every day in an office… He was terribly, terribly polite.”
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