Angela Rayner comments on the Conservative Party being fined over Downing Street flat refurb

Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s Deputy Leader and Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, commenting on the Conservative Party being fined £17,800 by the Electoral Commission for failing to keep proper records over a donation to refurbish Boris Johnson’s Downing Street flat, said:

“Boris Johnson's sleaze is corroding the office of Prime Minister.

"The Paterson scandal, illicit Christmas parties in Number 10 and now dodgy payments from a multimillionaire Conservative Party donor to fund his luxury Downing Street refurb.

"It is one rule for them, and one rule for the rest of us, and Boris Johnson is at the heart of it.

"It is right that the Electoral Commission has fined the Conservative Party but the Prime Minister must now explain why he lied to the British public saying he did not know who was behind the Number 11 flat refurb - all the while he was messaging the donor asking for more money.

“Boris Johnson has taken the British public for fools. He has not only broken the law but made a mockery of the standards we expect from our prime ministers." 

Ends

Notes to editors

• Report of investigation into the Conservative and Unionist Party - recording and reporting of payments - 9 December 2021, Electoral Commission
  
  

• Labour’s lawyers called for there to be a legal investigation into the Downing Street refurb back in March this year. - 25 April 2021, The Guardian
  
  

• The Electoral Commission found the Conservative Party guilty of breaking donation law - Under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA), regulated by the Commission, registered political parties must identify and report donations they receive above a certain financial threshold – the Conservatives failed to comply.
  
  

• The evidence showed that the Conservative Party received a donation of £67,801.72 from Huntswood Associates Limited (Conservative Peer Lord Brownlow has sole control of that company) in October 2020 – £52,801.72 of which was to cover the cost of three invoices relating to the refurbishment of Downing Street. £15,000 was reported as a donation in the party’s Q4 2020 donation report; the remaining £52,801.72 was not.
  
  

• The EC “received over 2,400 pages of evidence in response to the notices by the deadline we set. This included financial records such as invoices, bank statements, credit card bills, and communications including letters, emails, meeting minutes and WhatsApp messages”