Mr Hannan made the remark on BBC Newsnight after being pressed by host Mark Urban. Allegations surround Ms Arcuri being awarded sponsorship grants worth thousands of pounds and joining trade missions led by Mr Johnson whilst he was London Mayor. Mr Hannan said: “I don’t really have anything to add.
“The Prime Minister says he’s acted with complete propriety, the presumption of innocence is not just a piety in this country and the timing does seem a bit suspicious, just when the kitchen sink is being thrown at him by his opponents.”
Mr Johnson was referred to the police watchdog on Friday.
The Greater London Authority says it made the referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) to allow it ”assess whether or not it is necessary to investigate the former mayor of London for the criminal offence of misconduct in public office”.
It added: ”The IOPC will now consider if it is necessary for the matter to be investigated.”
The monitoring officer wrote to the Prime Minister: “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 update: “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.
“Everything was done with propriety and in the normal way.”
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She re-applied under different companies for Malaysia and Singapore and went on her own volition to New York.
Mr Johnson’s office allowed her to get a place on the Tel Aviv trip but she is believed to have paid for her flight and hotel.
Mr Johnson said he would oomph with the London Assembly request for explanation: “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 added it had been an “open, transparent and competitive process”.
Mr Hannan has been an MEP for Southeast England since 1999.
He was a leading figure in the Leave campaign.
Mr Hannan is one of four Tory MEPs.
The others are Geoffrey Van Orden (East of England), Nosheena Mobarik (Scotland) and Anthea McIntyre (West Midlands).
