LONDON: Thegovernment of London said it had referred Prime Minister Boris Johnson toBritain's police watchdog for potential investigation over allegations ofmisconduct involving a US businesswoman while he was mayor of London. TheGreater London Authority (GLA) said on Friday it had referred a "conductmatter" concerning Johnson to the Independent Office for Police Conduct(IOPC), which investigates complaints connected to the police.
The referralfollows allegations, first reported by The Sunday Times, that when Johnson wasmayor, he failed to declare close personal links to tech entrepreneur JenniferArcuri who received thousands of pounds in public business funding and placeson official trade trips. Asked about the referral, Johnson's spokesman said:"The prime minister as mayor of London did a huge amount of work whenselling our capital city around the world, beating the drum for London and theUK.
"Everythingwas done with propriety and in the normal way," he added. Arcuri did notimmediately respond to an emailed request for comment. The matter has beenreferred to the police watchdog because Johnson was head of the Mayor's Officefor Policing and Crime, a role equivalent to a police commissioner, during his2008-2016 term as mayor.
Under thereferral, the authority will try to determine whether there are grounds for afull investigation that could lead to criminal charges of misconduct in publicoffice. The GLA said in a statement: "The Monitoring Officer of the GLAhas today recorded a 'conduct matter' against Boris Johnson and referred him tothe Independent Office for Police Conduct so it can assess whether or not it isnecessary to investigate the former Mayor of London for the criminal offence ofmisconduct in public office."
It said theaction had been taken in accordance with the Police Reform and SocialResponsibility Act 2011. In a letter to Johnson, the GLA said: "Subject toany explanation provided by you, these matters give rise to a suggestion thatthere has been a failure to safeguard the public purse and if so that amountsto a significant breach of public trust. "These are the ingredients of theoffence of misconduct in a public office," said the letter from the officeof the authority's monitoring officer, which was made public.
The letter saidInnotech, Arcuri's then company, received 11,500 pounds ($14,000) from London& Partners, the mayor's promotional agency, for two events in 2013 and2014. She was able to attend a trade mission to Singapore and Malaysia in 2014through Playbox, one of her companies, even though an initial applicationthrough Innotech had been declined.
The letter saidthe Monitoring Officer was also aware "from media reports andelsewhere" that Arcuri also had been allowed to participate in eventsaround two other trade missions - to New York and Israel in 2015 - although shehad not qualified for the New York mission and had been rejected for themission to Israel. Johnson has vowed to take Britain out of the European Unionby Oct 31. British opposition parties are discussing tabling a vote ofno-confidence in Johnson as early as next week over his handling of Brexit, theTelegraph newspaper reported on Friday. - Reuters