BORIS Johnson today declared he “loves John Lewis” after claims the PM wanted to ditch his old furniture “nightmare” in the controversial No11 refurbishment.
The PM insisted today he would comply with the Electoral Commission’s bombshell investigation and said “I don’t think there’s anything to see here”.
The renovation of the No 10 flat, which reportedly features a £800-a-roll wallpaper and trendy pink sofas, has sparked the biggest crisis of his premiership.
There have been reports his fiancé Carrie Symonds described the decor left behind by Theresa May as a “John Lewis nightmare”.
During a visit to a West London school, the PM was asked what was wrong with the John Lewis furniture he and Carrie were apparently so keen to get rid of.
He replied: “Absolutely nothing! If there’s one thing I object to in this whole farrago nonsense is that I have anything… I love John Lewis!”
The much-loved British brand has been trolling the PM on Twitter with amusing messages.
Yesterday they showed a pic of a John Lewis van outside Downing Street, with a message saying: “Good thing we have a recycling service for old pre-loved furniture.”
Also during his visit he went on it say that he thinks people want Government to focus on “their priorities” rather than endless rows about wallpaper.
He added: “And I know that people love these types of issues, and you just asked the sort of question I know Westminster people are interested in quite properly.
“But I think what people want our Government to do is get on with the roadmap, get on with taking the country forward, get on with the fastest vaccine rollout programme in Europe, get on with recruiting more police officers.
“We’ve got 8,771 more, we’ve beaten our target which was 6,000 by this stage, and bring crime down, give people the opportunity of housing and get on with our agenda of uniting and levelling up across the country.
“And by several orders of magnitude I believe that’s what people want the Government to be focussing on right now.”
And on the investigation, he added: “We will comply with whatever they want and I don’t think there’s anything to see here.”
He said that new sleaze commissioner Lord Geidt would do an “outstanding job” in his review of the refurbishment of the Prime Minister’s flat, but refused to say he’d publish it in full, or when.
Good thing we have a recycling service for old pre-loved furniture
— John Lewis & Partners (@JohnLewisRetail) April 28, 2021
pic.twitter.com/uVB9krdDJH
The visit came as the PM faced more awkward questions over who initially paid for the £58,000 refit of his Downing St flat.
In an angry PMQs exchange yesterday Boris repeatedly insisted he footed the final bill.
But it has been claimed the Conservative Party stumped up, with the PM then paying the money back later.
The Electoral Commission has launched a probe into how it was funded and said there are grounds to believe an offence may have occurred.
If found guilty, the PM could face huge fines, or the police could even be involved if there’s a serious breach of the law.
Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi defended him today and accused Labour of playing political games by fanning the flames of the scandal.
He insisted: “Whether it is John Lewis or Lulu Lytle, the important thing is the PM paid for this, not the taxpayer.”
Boris is also braced for further trouble, with Dominic Cummings set to claim he was a fan of the discredited herd immunity policy early in the pandemic.
The former top adviser is due to discuss the Government response with MPs on May 26.
It is thought he will spill the beans on the ten days in March last year when Mr Johnson and his advisers were resisting a lockdown.
ITV’s Robert Peston writes in today’s Spectator of his blogpost at the time about the PM and his aides’ initial approach to Covid.
Peston says: “The blog, which generated a lot of noise, said the Government was pursuing a strategy of allowing the virus to pass through the population in a slow and steady way so that we acquired ‘herd immunity’.
“What I wrote was the prevailing view of the PM, his ministers and his scientific advisers.”
Mr Peston says Mr Cummings will say “this was the moment the penny dropped for him that the NHS would struggle to cope” — and the PM was then talked into lockdown.
The minutes of a Sage meeting on 13 March, after Mr Peston’s bombshell blog, said: “Sage was unanimous that measures seeking to completely suppress spread of Covid-19 will cause a second peak.
“Sage advises that it is a near certainty that countries such as China, where heavy suppression is under way, will experience a second peak once measures are relaxed.”
Mr Cummings will make an appearance in front of MPs to discuss the “lessons learned” from the pandemic.
