Boris Johnson is facing demands to explain who paid £15,000 for his Caribbean holiday over the New Year following disclosures in official documents.
According to the register of members’ interests, a benefactor called David Ross had allowed the prime minister and his partner, Carrie Symonds, to use accommodation for a private holiday in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
It was widely reported that this David Ross was the Tory donor who co-founded the Carphone Warehouse chain and who has a holiday home on the private island of Mustique, one of the Grenadines.
But on Wednesday night Ross reportedly told one media organisation he was not the owner of the villa where Johnson had stayed and had not paid for the prime minister’s stay.
A spokesman for the businessman told the Daily Mail: “Boris Johnson did not stay in David Ross’s house. Boris wanted some help to find somewhere in Mustique, David called the company who run all the villas and somebody had dropped out. So Boris got the use of a villa that was worth £15,000, but David Ross did not pay any monies whatsoever for this.”
Asked about Johnson’s declaration, the spokesman reportedly said: “I believe it is a mistake.”
But No 10 has claimed that Ross was responsible for the holiday. A source said Ross was responsible because he had arranged the stay.
Labour called for Kathryn Stone, the commissioner for standards who is in charge of monitoring declarations of interest, to launch an inquiry into the donation.
Jon Trickett, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, said: “Boris Johnson must come clean about who has paid for his luxury trip. If he fails to do so, the parliamentary commissioner for standards should step in and make him ’fess up. The public deserves to know who is paying for their prime minister’s jaunts.”
Ross, 54, has known Johnson for at least 15 years. He was a member of the London 2012 board as a representative of Johnson, who was then mayor of London. He was forced to quit as deputy chair of Carphone Warehouse in 2008 after failing to disclose that he had pledged a large proportion of his stake in the company against personal loans.
The Caribbean holiday provided Johnson with a break after the election campaign, which saw him win a Conservative landslide. At the time, it was reported that Johnson and Symonds were visiting the private island of Mustique. The prime minister was criticised for waiting until the end of the holiday to issue a statement on the death of the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani, who had been killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad.
According to Johnson’s declaration, the holiday donor was identified as “Mr David Ross”. Under the heading “nature and value of benefit in kind (or amount of any donation)”, Johnson’s entry stated: “Accommodation for a private holiday for my partner and me, value £15,000.” The private holiday lasted from 26 December to 5 January, according to the entry in the register.
Ross is a former tax exile and friend of David Cameron with a fortune estimated at £1bn. He has donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to the Conservative party, and prominent Tories are known to have been visitors to shooting parties at his sprawling country estate in Leicestershire.
He has entertained many stars at his huge villa on Mustique. Lavish parties have been attended by, among others, Mick Jagger, the publisher William Cash, the merchant banker Mark Cecil, and Prince William and Kate.
Ross also gave Cameron gifts when he was prime minister, flying him from London to West Yorkshire in a helicopter and providing him with a return flight from Germany, where he had attended a World Cup match.
One of Ross’s guests was former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks. In 2011, she visited him months after she first faced charges over phone-hacking at the company. Following an eight-month trial, Brooks was found not guilty.
Tony Blair was heavily criticised for accepting holidays as gifts when prime minister. The Labour prime minister joined the Italian politician Silvio Berlusconi in 2004 for a long weekend at his villa on the Italian island of Sardinia, shortly after staying in Barbados, courtesy of Cliff Richard.
A No 10 spokeswoman said: “All transparency requirements have been followed, as set out in the register of members’ financial interests.”
