The controversial refurbishment of Boris Johnson's official Downing Street flat cost more than £200,000, according to a leaked copy of the invoice. A £7,000 rug, 10 rolls of wallpaper priced £225 each and a pair of sofas worth over £15,000 were among the items ordered by the Prime Minister and his wife, Carrie Johnson, from interior designer Lulu Lytle’s upmarket Soane Britain firm for their No 11 apartment.
The invoice, obtained by The Independent, also listed a £3,675 drinks trolley and dining chairs costing £11,200. The cheapest item, a kitchen table cloth, was priced at £500, the PA news agency reports.
The total estimate amounted to £208,104 and was sent to the Cabinet Office in early 2020, The Independent said. The Cabinet Office, which reportedly leaked the invoice, refused to comment, as did Soane Britain, while No 10 was contacted for comment.
Mr Johnson resigned as the Conservative party leader on Thursday following a series of scandals that caused MPs to withdraw their support for him. He wants to stay in office as Prime Minister until a new leader is appointed.
In May 2021, Mr Johnson asked his then-adviser on ministerial interests, Lord Geidt, to investigate claims that he had secretly asked Tory donors to foot the bill for the redecoration, which far exceeded the £30,000 annual public grant afforded to the Prime Minister to spend on his living quarters. Lord Geidt cleared Mr Johnson of breaching the Ministerial Code, and said that, when Mr Johnson learned the bill had been settled by the Conservative Party – including with a donation from Tory donor Lord Brownlow – he reimbursed them out of his own pocket.
However, a further investigation by the Electoral Commission resulted in the party being fined £17,800 for failing to properly declare a £67,000 donation from a firm controlled by Lord Brownlow. It also revealed that Mr Johnson had exchanged WhatsApp messages with Lord Brownlow about the revamp in November 2020 which had not been disclosed to Lord Geidt.
This raised questions about what Mr Johnson knew about the source of the donations, and whether Lord Brownlow was able to get access to ministers in return for helping to bankroll the work. Mr Johnson was at the time reported to have complained that the cost was “totally out of control” and that his then-fiancée Carrie Symonds was “buying gold wallpaper”.
