Greedy bastard !!!

Notwithstanding that 'WE' pay him £30,000 each and every year to decorate his flat, both he and a former aid say that £30,000 is not enough. Has he, by chance ever heard of 'living within one's means' ???

Far from being not enough, I would say its too generous and cut that back by 90% !!!


Ex-Tory MP says £30,000 taxpayer cash a year isn’t enough to refurbish Boris Johnson’s flat

James Morris
30 April 2021, 12:00 pm

A former Conservative MP has said £30,000 a year of taxpayer cash is not enough to refurbish Boris Johnson’s Downing Street flat.

Victoria Borwick, who was one of Johnson’s deputies when he was mayor of London, said questions should be asked about “only” getting £30,000 a year to renovate the flat in 11, Downing Street.

Borwick, who was Kensington MP between 2015 and 2017, told Sky News Breakfast that if Johnson served a 10-year terms as prime minister, £300,000 could be classed as a “reasonable amount”.

The scandal continues to linger around the PM one week after his former chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, accused Johnson of wanting donors to “secretly pay” for the renovations in a “possibly illegal” move.

A PM is entitled to £30,000 a year of taxpayer money to fund renovations, but the cost of Johnson’s project is reported to have spiralled well beyond this. Some reports have suggested it cost £200,000.

Borwick said of the row on Friday: “There are a number of inquiries which the commission and the others are going to run and obviously they are going to have to look at the process of the way all these things are funded.

“If we only give somebody £30,000 a year to refurbish which for most of us seems a lot of money… but if Boris is PM for a long time that would potentially give him the opportunity of spending £300,000.

“So I think these amounts are quite important when you consider you are decorating a home that receives international visitors, and obviously there’s got to be a better way of funding it.

“I think that’s one of the interesting debates we should be having. He can’t be the first person who’s needed to decorate and not necessarily known the total costs at the outset.”

When asked if she thinks the £30,000 taxpayer allowance is not enough, she said: “I think it’s an awful lot of money but on the other hand, if you’re going to do a renovation where you’re hoping to be somewhere for a long time, I suppose you’ve got to look back and say: ‘Well you spent this money 10 years ago, it will look a much more reasonable amount.’”

The government is on the record as saying Johnson has covered the cost of the refurbishment, but has refused to say how it was initially funded.

The Electoral Commission announced on Wednesday that it would be formally investigating how the refurbishment of Johnson's flat was initially funded.

The watchdog, which is probing the Tory Party, said there are "reasonable grounds to suspect that an offence or offences may have occurred".

While the scandal has been widely reported for a week, Home Office minister Victoria Atkins told the same programme it’s “quite the pick-up” among the public as it is in Westminster.

Backbench MP Dehenna Davison also told ITV’s Peston show on Wednesday that 10 times the number of constituents are contacting her about bees than the flat refurbishment row.