Boris Johnson intervened to request that Jennifer Arcuri be included on a trade trip he led to Israel despite her initially being turned down, it has been claimed.
Arcuri, whose friendship with the prime minister is at the centre of a conflict of interest row, was at first rejected for the trip to Tel Aviv in 2015 while Johnson was London mayor because she did not qualify.
But a former City Hall worker, who worked closely with the mayor and helped organise the trip, revealed that Johnson had apparently personally requested Arcuri be there.
The ex-aide told Sky News: “I got to Tel Aviv and was sitting in the hotel bar with delegates when I saw Jennifer Arcuri walk in. I turned to the person organising the trip and asked: ‘What’s she doing here?’ Apparently, the mayor asked for her to be involved.”
The unnamed former adviser confirmed they had “heard the rumours” about Johnson and Arcuri but they were “shocked” to see the US businesswoman at the November 2015 visit. “I thought it was very unusual for her to be on this trip because it was so focused on educational technology and that wasn’t her business.”
It was one of three overseas trade trips led by Johnson that Arcuri went on and among two that the then mayor’s team intervened to allow her access to despite initially being directed.
London & Partners (L&P), the mayor’s promotional agency, has previously confirmed that Arcuri enquired about the Israel trip but was told that she did not qualify for it. Arcuri subsequently told L&P that she had “secured permission from a mayoral adviser to attend Tel Aviv alongside the delegation and to provide some administrative support, including booking her hotel room”. L&P booked Arcuri’s hotel room but the businesswoman paid for it, as well as booking and paying for her own flight.
The claims come as Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, insisted that an investigation he ordered into allegations about Johnson and Arcuri will be independent and was not politically motivated.
The Labour mayor said the claims of conflict of interest against Johnson were serious and that he had a duty to launch an investigation. He also insisted that he would have nothing to do with the probe, which will conducted by the chief counsel to the London Fire Brigade, Kathryn Robinson.
Speaking on LBC radio on Thursday, Khan said the inquiry will focus on claims that Johnson had failed to declare an interest when his promotional agency, London & Partners, awarded Arcuri’s firm £11,500 in sponsorship. It gave her a place on international trade missions despite failing to meet the eligibility criteria.
Khan said the investigation was “absolutely not” concerned with how Johnson conducted his personal life.
Khan said: “I can’t be the judge and jury. I saw a Sunday newspaper containing allegations against Boris Johnson. They are serious allegations. It would be improper for me as a Labour mayor, taking over from Boris Johnson, to investigate these allegations.
“What I did was I asked to my chief of staff to ask a separate official, from the London Fire Brigade, to look into this.” Khan rejected Johnson’s suggestion that the inquiry was “politically motivated”.
He insisted he would have launched a similar investigation if the same kind of allegations had been made against the former Labour mayor Ken Livingstone. He said: “I’m quite clear and comfortable that we’ve been impartial and straight in relation to this.” Referring to Robinson, he said: “I’m not sure if I’ve even met her.”
He said the probe would look at three key questions: “What processes were in place when Boris Johnson was mayor? Were those processes followed? And what lessons needs to be learned?”
Also on Thursday, the digital minister, Matt Warman, confirmed that a separate review into how a £100,000 grant was awarded earlier this year to Hacker House, a company run by Arcuri, would be completed by the end of the month.
The grant was designed to foster UK skills and was eligible only UK-based companies, but was awarded Hacker House after Arcuri moved back to the US.
Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, asked Warman to confirm whether Hacker House was based in the UK.
Warman said: “As far as all the due diligence that was done at the time, then Hacker House met all of the criteria. We are looking into this matter and that review will report to the house by the end of this month.”
When the Guardian phoned Hacker House’s UK number it got through to the US. A member of Watson’s team had the same experience.
Watson told the Commons: “Last week the minister … gave the impression that Hacker House was UK-based when he referred to a UK phone number owned by the company. My team phoned it, and it was answered by a woman in California.
“I looked at the Companies House website this morning to see that there has been a registration detail change that one of the principal directors now registers their state of residence as the United States, and so I remain concerned.”
Watson also pointed out that the accounts of Hacker House show that a £700,000 loan was made to the company by one of its directors before the grant was awarded, as reported by the Observer.
Watson asked Warman: “Can he assure us that this unusual transaction was not used to unlock a taxpayer-funded government scheme?”
Warman said his department’s review would “look into all these matters”. He added: “The residence of an individual director is not one of the defining characteristics of whether a company is based in the UK or not.”
