Boris Johnson may be forced to give evidence to the London Assembly over his ‘intimate’ relationship with his alleged ‘mistress’ Jennifer Arcuri.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said on Thursday that it would not be launching a probe into the Prime Minister following claims of misconduct in public office, which he denies.
But the review established there was a ‘close association’ between the pair and there ‘may have been an intimate relationship’.
The London Assembly had said it will resume its own investigation into allegations that Ms Arcuri received thousands of pounds in public money and privileged access to three foreign trade trips led by Mr Johnson when he headed City Hall as Mayor.
And on Thursday evening, it emerged that Mr Johnson could face a legal summons to appear in person before the London Assembly’s cross-party oversight committee, according to the Daily Mirror.
Political opponents of Mr Johnson ‘still has many questions to answer’ after the police watchdog opted not to pursue a criminal probe.
Jennifer Arcuri with Boris Johnson on a double-decker bus in 2012, when he was Mayor. The IOPC said on Thursday that it would not be launching a probe into the Prime Minister following claims of misconduct in public office, which he denies
The Prime Minister is reportedly expected to appear later this year in front of the London Assembly.
The body has the power under the Greater London Authority Act to summon anybody who served as London mayor within the previous eight years.
Len Duvall, chair of the London Assembly’s scrutiny committee, told the Mirror: ‘We will be fully exploring every avenue that we have at our disposal to make sure we get to the bottom of these allegations.
‘That means the possibility of summoning not just the Prime Minister, but maybe others too, who may have information that might be helpful to get to the bottom of these matters.’
He added: ‘The IOPC was looking specifically at whether he committed a criminal offence. That’s not our remit and their decision doesn’t have any real bearing on our investigation, which will focus on his conduct as Mayor of London.’
Sources also reportedly told the Mirror that the committee ‘fully expected’ to summon the PM later this year.
They also said they could ask Ms Arcuri, 35, to give evidence about her relationship with Mr Johnson, but admitted they not have the power to force her to appear.
Siobhan Benita, the Liberal Democrat Candidate for Mayor of London, described the timing of the decision not to pursue a criminal investigation against Mr Johnson as ‘outrageous’ and urged the Prime Minister to face the London Assembly.
The Prime Minister pictured returning back to Downing Street on Thursday after his morning exercise. The London Assembly said it will resume its own investigation into allegations
Neil Coyle, Labour MP for Bermondsey and Southwark, tweeted following the IOPC’s decision
She said: ‘It is outrageous that a decision as important as this comes so late, effectively kicked into the long grass during the general election.
‘Boris Johnson may not be facing a criminal investigation but he still has many questions to answer.
‘The Prime Minister should face the London Assembly so that his conduct can be thoroughly examined. Avoiding scrutiny may be his trademark but it should not be tolerated.’
Neil Coyle, Labour MP for Bermondsey and Southwark, also tweeted: ‘Boris Johnson faces an Oversight Committee inquiry to see if his handling of Jennifer Arcuri when Mayor of London breached conduct rules.
‘They’ll be looking at ‘integrity, selflessness, openness and honesty’ in his conduct. Anyone else suspect they won’t find any?’
Neither the PM nor Ms Arcuri have denied that they were involved in an affair.
IOPC Director General Michael Lockwood said: ‘While there was no evidence that Mr Johnson influenced the payment of sponsorship monies or participation in trade missions, there was evidence to suggest that those officers making decisions about sponsorship monies and attendance on trade missions thought that there was a close relationship between Mr Johnson and Ms Arcuri, and this influenced their decision-making.’
The allegations were referred to the IOPC in September because the watchdog has a remit over the City Hall role, as head of the mayor’s office for policing and crime.
The allegations were referred to the IOPC in September because the watchdog has a remit over the City Hall role (pictured: Boris Johnson and Jennifer Arcuri in 2014)
The IOPC stated: ‘The Independent Office for Police Conduct today informed the Right Honourable Boris Johnson and the Greater London Authority (GLA) that it will not be conducting a criminal investigation into allegations that Mr Johnson used his position while Mayor of London to benefit and reward American businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri.
‘The IOPC’s Operation Lansdowne review found no evidence indicating Mr Johnson influenced the payment of any sponsorship monies to Ms Arcuri or that he influenced or played an active part in securing her participation in trade missions.’
But the London Assembly said it would resume its own investigation, which it paused at the request of the police watchdog.
A review established there was a ‘close association’ between the pair and there ‘may have been an intimate relationship’ between Ms Arcuri (left) and Mr Johnson (right, outside No10 today)
A redacted part of the report, pictured above, which reads: ‘The witness confirmed that Ms Arcuri disclosed to them that she and Mr Johnson were in a sexual relationship’
The Assembly’s investigation will look at whether Mr Johnson ‘conducted himself in a way that’s expected’ from a senior public official, said Mr Duval.
‘The oversight committee will take into account the current emergency when looking at the timetable for the investigation,’ he added.
Johnson’s Downing Street office said it welcomed ‘that this politically motivated complaint has been thrown out’.
‘This was not a policing matter, and we consider this was a waste of police time,’ it added.
Ms Arcuri has admitted hosting the thrice-married 55-year-old at her flat in Shoreditch, east London, which featured a nightclub dancing pole, but has repeatedly refused to answer questions about sex.
At the time Mr Johnson was married to barrister Marina Wheeler, the mother of four of his children, although Ms Arcuri said the visits stopped after he became Foreign Secretary.
The couple later divorced and the Tory leader’s 32-year-old fiancee, Carrie Symonds, recently gave birth to their baby boy, Wilfred.
Ms Arcuri insists she and Mr Johnson ‘did nothing wrong’ and has previously said: ‘I had every right to be on those trips as a legitimate businesswoman and stand by everything that happened because these allegations are completely false.’
Ms Arcuri accompanied Mr Johnson on three official trade missions despite not qualifying as a delegate and her companies received £126,000 in public money. At the time they were allegedly having a four-year affair which he failed to declare.
The IOPC began an investigation on the basis that Mr Johnson was the equivalent of London’s police and crime commissioner at the time and Ms Arcuri agreed to give evidence ‘to clear the matter up’.
Mr Johnson has refused to answer questions about what happened but claims he acted with ‘full propriety’ and had ‘no interest to declare’. He is also facing a standards investigation by the London Assembly’s oversight committee.
Ms Arcuri spoke about her ‘very special’ relationship with Mr Johnson in an astonishing series of TV appearances last year.
Ms Arcuri swerved queries about her relationship with Mr Johnson, telling GMB hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid in December last year that she did not want to ‘be pressured into admitting’ to anything about her links to the Prime Minister.
Later, speaking to Victoria Derbyshire, Ms Arcuri insisted Mr Johnson did not do her any ‘favours’ but said she wished he had declared her as an interest if it could have ‘saved me this entire embarrassment and humiliation’.
She said: ‘I would love an apology for acknowledging the fact that given all those years, you know, that I was on the ground, hustling and working as a student. I mean he saw my arc, he saw my progression as a young woman, graduating and becoming, you know, a mature entrepreneur.’
She also accused the Prime Minister of feeding her to the wolves. Asked if Mr Johnson ‘had bigger fish to fry’, she said: ‘That’s what you tell somebody when you meet them for the night, you don’t know them, you haven’t spent the hours with them, the investment into another person.
‘And the fact that I’m called out, just on GMB, because ‘why I am here if I’m not here to admit the affair?’
‘Well wait a minute I’m not allowed to be upset because somebody that was very much a part of my life, who knew what I stood for, the calibre and integrity and merit that I work at. I mean all these things he knew and he sat back, why?
‘He didn’t have to ignore me, it could have been a 30-second phone call, just to let me know that he’s acknowledging the fact that he, while he gets to be prime minister gets to feed me to the wolves – and I find that really disturbing.’
Ms Arcuri pictured with Mr Johnson. Ms Arcuri spoke about her ‘very special’ relationship with Mr Johnson in an astonishing series of TV appearances last year
Two weddings, three affairs, at least six kids, and a pole-dancing tech guru: The very busy love life of Boris Johnson
The news that Boris Johnson’s girlfriend Carrie Symonds is pregnant, and that the pair are engaged, marks the latest chapter in the PM’s turbulent love life.
His first marriage at the age of 23 to Allegra Mostyn-Owen in 1987 collapsed six years later after it emerged he was having an affair with childhood friend Marina Wheeler.
Boris’s subsequent marriage to Marina lasted 25 years – during which he had affairs with three women.
Here, we outline the Prime Minister’s colourful past relationships.
1987: The first wife, Allegra Mostyn-Owen, whom he met at Oxford
Boris married his Oxford University sweetheart Allegra Mostyn-Owen in 1987 when they were both aged 23.
They divorced in 1993 after his affair with the woman who would become his second wife, Marina Wheeler.
Boris Johnson married Oxford University sweetheart Allegra Mostyn-Owen (pictured together) in 1987 when they were both aged 23
The couple (above) divorced in 1993 after his affair with the woman who would become his second wife, Marina Wheeler
The daughter of renowned art historian William Mostyn-Owen and flamboyant Italian writer Gaia Servadio, Allegra was a socialite and former Tatler cover girl whose beauty had besotted young men falling at her feet at Oxford University.
‘When we got married, that was actually the end of the relationship instead of the beginning,’ Allegra would later say.
Their relationship ended after six years following revelations of his affair with Marina Wheeler QC, who was a childhood friend of Boris.
Marina became pregnant with the first of their four children before his divorce from Allegra was finalised.
Johnson later reconciled with Mostyn-Owen before they separated in February 1990 and divorced in 1993 – just 12 days before he married Marina Wheeler, whom he had a child with five weeks later.
The daughter of renowned art historian William Mostyn-Owen and flamboyant Italian writer Gaia Servadio, Allegra was a socialite and former Tatler cover girl whose beauty had besotted young men falling at her feet at Oxford University.
‘When we got married, that was actually the end of the relationship instead of the beginning,’ Allegra would later say.
Their relationship ended after six years following revelations of his affair with Marina Wheeler QC, who was a childhood friend of Boris.
Marina became pregnant with the first of their four children before his divorce from Allegra was finalised.
Johnson later reconciled with Mostyn-Owen before they separated in February 1990 and divorced in 1993 – just 12 days before he married Marina Wheeler, whom he had a child with five weeks later.
1993: Boris marries Marina Wheeler – the woman who stood by him for years… but left her just as he was on the brink of becoming PM
Marina Wheeler married Boris on May 8, 1993 – just 12 days after his divorce from Allegra was finalised on April 26.
Together, Boris and Marina have four children: Lara Lettice, Milo Arthur, Cassia Peaches and Theodore Apollo.
After first meeting Boris at the European School of Brussels, they also attended private boarding school Bedales in Hampshire together before she went to Cambridge.
Marina Wheeler married Boris married on May 8, 1993 – just 12 days after his divorce from Allegra was finalised on April 26. (The pair are pictured in 2015)
Together, Boris and Marina (above, in 2008) have four children: Lara Lettice, Milo Arthur, Cassia Peaches and Theodore Apollo
Marina Wheeler married Boris on May 8, 1993 – just 12 days after his divorce from Allegra was finalised on April 26.
Together, Boris and Marina have four children: Lara Lettice, Milo Arthur, Cassia Peaches and Theodore Apollo.
After first meeting Boris at the European School of Brussels, they also attended private boarding school Bedales in Hampshire together before she went to Cambridge.
2004: Petronella Wyatt and the ‘inverted pyramid of piffle’
In 2004, Boris’s four-year affair with journalist and society author Petronella Wyatt (pictured), the daughter of Labour grandee Lord Wyatt, became public
Around seven years into his marriage to Marina, she became aware that Boris was having an affair with Petronella Wyatt, daughter of Margaret Thatcher’s favourite journalist Woodrow Wyatt.
In 2004, it was reported that ‘Petsy’ may have had an abortion, to which Boris declared to The Mail on Sunday: ‘I had not had an affair with Petronella.
‘It is complete balderdash. It is an inverted pyramid of piffle.’
Boris was soon found to be lying and after days of publicity, Tory leader Michael Howard sacked Johnson from his position as Shadow Culture Minister.
2006: Emergence of liaisons with Anna Fazackerley
In 2006, it emerged Boris had been having an affair with journalist Anna Fazackerley (above)
Alongside this, Marina was also alerted to another affair that Boris had been having with journalist Anna Fazackerley, which emerged in 2006.
When the affairs garnered publicity, it also became public knowledge that Marina had become pregnant at the time that Boris was still married to Allegra, who was quoted saying: ‘I divorced him for adultery. It enabled him to marry Marina.’
The divorce had been finalised on April 26, 1993 and Boris married Marina on May 8 of the same year, with Lara Johnson being born on June 12.
Marina threw her husband out of their home after his affair with Anna was publicised, but they soon worked things out.
2009: The love child with Helen Macintyre
Mr Johnson is said to have fathered a child with art consultant Helen Macintyre (pictured) in 2009. It is understood Miss Wheeler again kicked him out of the family home
In 2009, Mr Johnson is said to have fathered a child with art consultant Helen Macintyre.
It is understood Mrs Wheeler had, again, kicked him out of the family home at the time.
Mr Johnson’s fatherhood of Miss Macintyre’s daughter was first revealed by the Daily Mail in July 2010.
In 2013, a court ruled that it was in the public interest for the Press to report Mr Johnson was the father.
Boris Johnson’s divorce from Marina Wheeler
Boris Johnson and his estranged wife Marina Wheeler agreed a divorce settlement on February 18 this year, following a legal dispute over money.
Judge Sarah Gibbons oversaw a private hearing in the Central Family Court in London, which neither party attended.
During the short hearing, she gave Ms Wheeler permission to apply for a Decree Absolute, which would bring the marriage to an end.
A case number revealed Mr Johnson, who is now living with Carrie Symonds at Downing Street, and Ms Wheeler were involved in a dispute over money or assets.
Marina Claire Wheeler was named as the ‘petitioner’ and ‘applicant’ in the case, while Alexander Boris De Pfeffel Johnson was named as the ‘respondent’.
Mr Johnson was said to have had £6.5million in cash and assets as of September 2018, but will have likely seen his wealth rise since becoming Prime Minister last July.
It is therefore plausible that Ms Wheeler will be receiving around £4million if it is an equal split. However, the judge said no detail from the case relating to money can be revealed in reports, apart from what is already in the public domain.
Judge Gibbons gave Ms Wheeler permission to apply for the decree absolute ‘out of time’.
This suggests that she was granted a decree nisi by the courts more than a year ago.
Those who are successfully granted a decree nisi have up to a year to apply for the next stage of divorce, the decree absolute.
Carrie Symonds moves into Downing Street
The Prime Minister’s fiancee moved into Downing Street in July of last year, before the pair announced they were expecting their first child and engaged in late February – making Mr Johnson the first British PM to marry in office for 200 years.
Mr Johnson pictured walking with his partner Carrie Symonds as they arrive at The Midland, a covention complex in Manchester, on the eve of the 2019 Conservative Party Conference
He is believed to have proposed during the couple’s romantic break in the Caribbean island of Mustique over Christmas.
Ms Symonds, who is the first unmarried partner of a Prime Minister to live in Downing Street, added that she felt ‘incredibly blessed’.
She gave birth in London late in April with the Prime Minister at her side, days after he himself had been released from medical care following a lengthy battle with coronavirus.
The couple revealed the boy’s full name as Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson, with the first name a tribute to Mr Johnson’s paternal grandfather, Osman Wilfred Kemal, and Lawrie a reference to Ms Symonds’ grandfather.
The new family are planning to live in their Downing Street flat along with their dog Dilyn.