Internal probe clears UK PM over ‘wallpapergate’

LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson acted "unwisely" over funding arrangements for a lavish makeover of his Downing Street flat, but was not guilty of any impropriety, his ethics advisor concluded on Friday.

The finding by Christopher Geidt, the UK government’s newly appointed adviser on ministerial standards, does not entirely lift the cloud over the "wallpapergate" affair with several other probes still under way.

It is also likely to fuel questions about why civil servants, at Johnson’s direction, were busy working on creating a White House-style trust to manage the Downing Street complex in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic last year.

Publishing an annual report on ministerial interests, Geidt found that Johnson "knew nothing" about how the designer makeover of his private quarters was funded, noting the works had begun as he was critically ill with Covid-19 in early April 2020.