Why was Boris Johnson on holiday?

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Boris and Carrie Johnson “Given that Mr Johnson was twice reprimanded by our predecessor committee in the last Parliament in the space of four months for an over-casual attitude towards obeying the rules of the House, we would have expected him to have gone the extra mile to ensure there was no uncertainty about the arrangements,” the committee said in July 2021. If the Johnsons shelled out for their holiday entirely by themselves, all well and good, because, under the the MPs’ Code of Conduct detailing the rules for registering overseas visits, trips abroad do not need to be declared so long as they are undertaken “wholly unconnected with membership of the house or with the member’s parliamentary or political activities.” But if the stay was in any way a gift from a friend or Conservative Party donor, which he has never been shy about accepting in the past, the same guidelines state: “Members must register… any visits to destinations outside the UK where the cost is over £300 if that cost is not wholly borne by the member or by UK public funds.” During his time as PM in summer 2021, Mr Johnson attracted controversy after he accepted a vacation at Tory peer Zac Goldsmith’s 13-room mansion on the Costa del Sol in Marbella and then subsequently declared it only on the ministerial register of interest, which does not require monetary details, rather than the MPs’ register, which does, on the grounds that the trip had been a freebie from Mr Goldsmith. Boris Johnson “In line with transparency requirements, he has declared the arrangement in his ministerial capacity, given the hospitality was provided by another minister,” a Downing Street spokesman said at the time. “Ministerial code declarations fall outside the remit of the Commons register.” Whether Mr Johnson has learned from his past mistakes will be a key question if he is to return to Downing Street, an occurrence he effectively predicted in his farewell address outside of No 10 on the morning of Tuesday 6 September when he drew a parallel with a famous hero of Ancient Rome who saved the empire from defeat and ignominy before retiring to obscurity.