Nothing to see here, insists Johnson amid flat refurbishment probe

Boris Johnson has said he will comply with “whatever” the Electoral Commission wants after the watchdog launched an investigation into the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat.

The Prime Minister said on Thursday that “I don’t think there’s anything to see here” despite the commission saying there are “reasonable grounds” to suspect an offence as it launched a formal inquiry.

The probe will seek to establish who initially paid for the work and whether any donation was properly declared.

Investigators can demand documents and information, and could potentially seek a statutory interview with the Prime Minister as part of the process.

During a visit to a London school, Mr Johnson told broadcasters:

We will comply with whatever they want, and I don’t think there is anything to see here, or worry about.

Mr Johnson insisted that newly-appointed ministerial standards adviser Lord Geidt will do an “outstanding job” in his separate review into whether any donations for the refurbishments in No 11 were properly declared.

Labour criticised the arrangement because the prime minister remains the “ultimate arbiter” of the code, meaning Mr Johnson “effectively marks his own homework”.

Mr Johnson argued, in a letter to chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life Lord Evans, that he “cannot and would not wish” to give up the power.

He added:

That vital responsibility is quite properly mine alone and, as an elected politician, one for which I am ultimately accountable to the electorate,