Boris Johnson faces potential criminal investigation over his links with an American businesswoman after the Greater London Authority referred the prime minister to a policing watchdog over alleged favours granted to Jennifer Arcuri when he was mayor of London.
The monitoring officer — an ethics watchdog — over the GLA announced on Friday evening it had raised a “conduct matter” regarding Mr Johnson with the Independent Office for Police Conduct for possible investigation over misconduct in public office.
The referral was made five days after the Sunday Times first reported the friendship between Mr Johnson when he was mayor of London and Ms Arcuri, a technology entrepreneur.
The referral has been made to the IOPC, a policing watchdog, because of Mr Johnson’s role when mayor as head of the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, which oversees the capital’s Metropolitan Police force.
“Allegations have been brought to the attention of the monitoring officer that Boris Johnson maintained a friendship with 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,” a GLA statement said.
However, a senior government figure insisted the referral was a “politically motivated attack”.
“Due process has not been followed and the timing is overtly political,” the person said.
In a letter sent to Mr Johnson and published alongside the statement, the monitoring officer laid out the detail of the claims that had prompted him to refer the mayor to the IOPC.
The letter said Innotech, Ms Arcuri’s then company, received £11,500 from London & Partners, the mayor’s promotional agency, for two events in 2013 and 2014. It added that Ms Arcuri was able in November 2014 to attend a trade mission to Singapore and Malaysia through Playbox, one of her companies, even though an initial application through Innotech had been declined.
It said Ms Arcuri had been allowed to participate in events around two other trade missions — to New York in February 2015 and Israel in November 2015 — although she had not qualified for the New York mission and had been rejected for the mission to Israel.
The reference to the IOPC follows a difficult week for Mr Johnson, in which he was forced to fly back early from the UN in New York after the Supreme Court found he had acted unlawfully in seeking a five-week prorogation, or suspension, of parliament.
The prime minister has insisted he acted with “complete propriety” when London mayor after he was questioned over his links with Ms Arcuri. The senior source said the monitoring officer had given no evidence for the allegations and the prime minister had been given no opportunity to respond to the monitoring officer before the statement was issued.
Mr Johnson’s record of electoral success and popularity when he was London’s elected mayor between 2008 and 2016 was one of his main selling points during his successful campaign for the Conservative leadership this year.
The GLA said a conduct matter could be raised when there was information that a criminal offence might have been committed.
It went on: “It does not mean that this is proved in any way. The IOPC will now consider if it is necessary for the matter to be investigated.”
The Greater London Assembly, the GLA’s legislature, had earlier this week, in a separate process, given Mr Johnson two weeks to respond to questions on his alleged ties with Ms Arcuri.
Ms Arcuri did not immediately respond to a request for comment via her email address listed on the website of Hacker House, her current main business.
