Was a secret Tory money trail used to pay for Carrie Symonds’s Downing Street makeover?

The mystery over the lavish makeover of the Prime Minister’s Downing Street flat deepened last night after claims emerged of a secret Tory money trail used to pay for it.

Conservative tycoon Lord Brownlow is said to have paid an estimated £60,000 to Tory HQ after the party had paid a similar sum via the Cabinet Office to help Mr Johnson and fiancée Carrie Symonds refit their apartment.

In another twist, it is alleged the Tories plan to state publicly that the money came from a new ‘Downing Street Trust’ – even though the bill was settled months ago by Lord Brownlow.

The developments follow a series of disclosures by the Daily Mail regarding a six-figure sum spent on new decor for the couple’s 11 Downing Street apartment.

This newspaper can now reveal details of a labyrinthine money trail reportedly used to cover up the payments for re-decorations and furnishings in a controversy dubbed ‘Wallpaper-gate’ by aides.

According to Downing Street sources, the complex scheme was devised ‘in a panic’ when Mr Johnson said he could not afford the expensive decor chosen by Miss Symonds. 

The allegations are expected to lead to new pressure on the Prime Minister and Conservative chiefs to say who paid for the refurbishment; how and when it was funded and why full details have still not been made public.

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by the respected Lord Brownlow, 57, below, who has close links to the Royal Family.

According to Downing Street insiders, cash for the makeover was channelled via a tangled web which involved:

• A payment of around £60,000 from Tory party coffers to the Cabinet Office, which is responsible for maintaining Downing Street, to pay for expensive items;
• A payment of the same amount from Lord Brownlow to Conservative HQ to reimburse the party;
• A plan by Tory chiefs to state publicly that the £60,000 came not from party HQ or Lord Brownlow, but from a newly established ‘Downing Street Trust’.

A No 10 spokesman said last night: ‘Conservative Party funds are not being used to pay for any refurbishment to the Downing Street estate. All reportable donations to the Conservative Party are correctly declared to the Electoral Commission, published by them and comply fully with the law.

‘At all times, the Government and ministers have acted in accordance with the appropriate codes of conduct. Cabinet Office officials have been engaged and informed throughout and official advice has been followed. 

Gifts and benefits received in a ministerial capacity are, and will continue to be, declared in Government transparency returns.’

The payments by Tory HQ and Lord Brownlow are said to have been made about six months ago.

All MPs, including the Prime Minister, must declare in the Commons Register of Interests any cash or other benefit from outside sources which could influence their actions. They must do so within 28 days. 

Mr Johnson’s entry in the register contains no mention of any payment or other help towards meeting the cost of the refit of his Downing Street flat.

Confusion over who is paying for the refurbishment is compounded because of the Prime Minister’s plans for a new trust to ‘save Downing Street for the nation’.

Publicly, No 10 aides say the trust is to maintain fading state rooms in Downing Street and will be funded by Conservative donors. 

Privately, they concede it was designed in haste principally to pay for the current makeover. 

Even though Mr Johnson appointed Lord Brownlow last summer to run the trust, no official announcement about it has been made.

According to one aide, Mr Johnson brushed aside warnings that getting the Conservative Party to pay for the lavish flat refit could be unethical and inappropriate – especially during the pandemic.

And he is said to have ignored advice that he should borrow the money from a bank.

‘He said Carrie had gone full speed ahead with the makeover, he needed the money quickly and the way to do it discreetly was to get donors to pay,’ the aide said.

According to one senior Conservative, Cabinet Secretary Simon Case is said to have been unaware of the way Mr Johnson paid for the refurbishment.

Lord Brownlow and the Cabinet Office did not respond to requests for a comment.

SIMON WALTERS: Row that’s really got Boris Johnson rattled – who helped him pay to refurbish his Downing Street flat? 

Analysis by Simon Walters for the Daily Mail

Questions over who helped Boris Johnson pay for the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat are the latest in a series of controversies over how open he is about where his money comes from.

He was warned two years ago he would be punished if he continued to flout Commons rules on disclosing his outside interests.

Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Kathryn Stone, said Mr Johnson had failed to ‘demonstrate leadership’ by omitting to register a 20 per cent share of a property in Somerset.

MPs on the Commons standards committee said his ‘over-casual attitude’ to parliamentary rules was a ‘pattern of behaviour’.

They warned he would face a ‘more serious sanction’ – a thinly veiled threat to suspend him as an MP – for any further breaches. Only months earlier, Mr Johnson had to apologise in the Commons for the late declaration of nine payments totalling £52,000 of outside earnings. 

Which, in my view, is why the Prime Minister cannot dismiss similar concerns raised by the flat makeover. The central allegation is familiar: his alleged failure to disclose openly and promptly what other sources of income or benefits he has received.

According to insiders, Mr Johnson secretly got a Tory donor to help pay for the refurbishment via the Conservative Party, failed to declare it, subsequently set up a ‘Downing Street Trust’ to hide the money trail – and tried to cover up the whole affair.

The Commons Register of Interests is clear: MPs must declare ‘any pecuniary or other material benefit which might influence his or her action’. And do it within four weeks.

The code says politicians must not act ‘to gain financial or other benefits for themselves, family or friends’.

If £60,000 of Tory party money was secretly used to pay for new decor in the Downing Street flat, it is not difficult to see how some could argue it is against the rules.

Mr Johnson appears to be pinning his hopes on avoiding a scandal by setting up the trust. The aim is to use it to maintain the state rooms in Downing Street, and – in the words of one aide – ‘hope that no one notices it also pays for Mr Johnson and Miss Symonds’ expensive taste in wallpaper’.

It is based on the Chequers Trust which maintains the Prime Minister’s official country home. That trust is funded by an endowment from Lord Lee who gave it to the nation a century ago. 

Key trustees are appointed by the Prime Minister, it meets behind closed doors and does not say how it spends its money.

You can see the attraction of having a similar arrangement for the Prime Minister’s official London home. However, unlike the Chequers Trust, the Downing Street Trust will reportedly be bankrolled by Tory donors, making it overtly political. The risk of a conflict of interest would appear obvious.

Publicly, Downing Street claims the row over the refurbishment is a storm in a teacup. Privately, Mr Johnson is worried.

In one discussion with aides, he referred to the way David Cameron and wife Samantha paid £25,000 from their own money towards the cost of a new No 11 kitchen.

‘Cameron got screwed in public even though he paid for it himself,’ he said.

‘If it gets out that I want donors to pay, it’ll be a disaster.