Boris Johnson embroiled in fresh row over finances

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Labour condemned the lack of transparency around the “alleged murky financial arrangements”, calling on No 10 to come clean about who exactly Mr Johnson had received money and other benefits from when he was PM. Tory MPs said the latest questions about Mr Johnson’s finances, coming soon after damning new Partygate claims, showed exactly why he was not a “suitable character” to be prime minister. A spokesman for the former PM said: “Boris Johnson did not in any way assist with, and was unaware of, any application by Sam Blyth, formal or informal, to serve in any position whatever with the British Council, and neither was anybody in No 10 who was acting on his behalf.” There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Mr Blyth, said to be a friend of Mr Johnson’s father, Stanley Johnson. The Canadian told the Sunday Times: “I am aware of the statement Boris Johnson is making and can confirm the accuracy of his account.” The former PM’s wife Carrie Johnson is believed to have made free use of Mr Blyth’s villa in the Dominican Republic in early 2022, before Mr Johnson and the whole family holidayed there in October.