‘Interior resign’ rolls out trouble for Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson may have wooed rich Conservative donors to pay for his lavish Downing Street reno, but he won’t get away with this.

Keir Starmer browses the wallpaper at John Lewis in Trafford on Thursday. Picture: Getty Images

Boris Johnson may be able to get away with wooing rich Conservative party donors to pay for his Downing Street flat renovation, but he won’t get away with indirectly criticising one of Britain’s beloved department stores, John Lewis.

The British Prime Minister has made a disastrous error in undertaking a lush refurbishment of his flat at a time when the nation was struggling with the coronavirus pandemic and now he is trying to row back. On Thursday he was insisting he really loved John Lewis — Britain’s equivalent of David Jones mixed with Domayne — which provides the furniture catalogue for the middle classes.

At a school in London on Thursday, Mr Johnson pleaded: “I love John Lewis’’.

At the same time, Mr Johnson’s political opponent, Labour leader Keir Starmer went inside the department store in Trafford, Manchester, and was pictured inspecting roll after roll of wallpaper, none of it coloured gold.

This frustrated the Conservative party chair Amanda Milling who tweeted one of the pictures. “When we say Labour are playing political games this is exactly what we mean,’’ she said.

For weeks, Mr Johnson has been fending off questions about wallpaper-gate, also known as “interior resign’’ and “cash-for-curtains’’. It centres around a £58,000 donation made to the Conservative party by Lord David Brownslow to pay for new decor of the prime minister’s flat, above 11 Downing Street.

Each prime minister receives a taxpayer allowance of £30,000 ($A53,813) to redo the flat to their taste, but Mr Johnson’s partner Carrie Symonds splashed out commissioning top end British designer Lulu Lytle and buying £840 ($A1,500) a roll gold wallpaper. The fit out was rumoured to include the designer’s trademark pieces such as a £9800 ($A17,600) baby bear sofa and a £3000 ($A5,400) lily drum table with the final bill approaching as much as £200,000 ($A359,000).

Boris Johnson takes a brew at King Solomon Academy in London on Thursday. Picture: AFP

Mr Johnson has whinged about the refurb blowout to aides: he has not long gone through a divorce, has at least six children to support, and suffered a pay cut when he became prime minister.

When the extravagance was unveiled, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove’s wife, Sarah Vine was quick to offer support, saying the prime minister “can’t be expected to live in a skip” and if he wants “a pink rather than a green sofa that’s fair enough”.

Ms Symonds says she had never objected to how former prime minister Theresa May had decorated the flat, which was once described in a magazine as a “John Lewis furniture nightmare”.

But scrutiny of the finances surrounding the fit-out has resulted in the Electoral Commission beginning an official investigation whether any laws were breached. Political loans and donations of more than £7500 ($A13,500) have to be declared. The prime minister’s new standard’s adviser Christopher Geidt, who was the Queen’s former private secretary, will also conduct an inquiry, but Mr Johnson has refused to commit to implement any recommendations that he may make.

Mr Johnson, under sustained pressure to reveal the circumstances of the payments for the flat furnishings, has testily told parliament that he had paid the bill. But he refuses to detail who initially paid it. “I don‘t think there is anything to see here or worry about,’’ he insisted.

By Friday Labour had submitted a complaint to the parliamentary commissioner for standards, who has twice before castigated Mr Johnson for “an over-casual attitude towards obeying the rules of the House”.

Meanwhile Sir Keir has been on the hustings ahead of May 6 local elections saying “’we will clean up Westminster’’, ticking off a list of “sleaze’’ beginning with the failed Australian financier Lex Greensill and his connections with former Tory prime minister David Cameron, and ending with the flat furnishings fiasco. “We’ve got WhatsApp messages. We’ve got David Cameron contacting anybody he knows within officialdom and within the cabinet,” Sir Keir said.

“We’ve got the health secretary who’s got shares in companies that are bidding for contracts within the NHS.

“We’ve got the prime minister on WhatsApp messages about tax arrangements and now we’ve got this ridiculous farce of the prime minster not being even prepared to answer a simple question about who paid for the redecoration of his flat. We need to clean this up.’’