“If I was prime minister I would make it a priority to clean up Westminster.”
Labour leader Keir Starmer has vowed to remove “cronyism” from Parliament if he becomes prime minister, as the Labour leader addressed the recent allegations involving Boris Johnson’s relationship with US businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri during his time as Mayor of London.
The Prime Minister is under pressure to appear before the Greater London Assembly’s oversight committee to answer questions about whether Ms Arcuri received any special favours whilst he was mayor. Unsurprisingly, Boris Johnson has so far refused to do this, with his spokesperson saying only that the Prime Minister would “engage” in the investigation.
Addressing the situation, Starmer said: “If there are questions for the PM to answer before whichever committee is relevant he should answer them.”
It was revealed recently that the Tory Party helped fund Johnson’s legal bills when he faced allegations of using his influence as mayor of the capital to “benefit and reward” Arcuri.
An investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct did find evidence of Johnson and Arcuri being rather more than just friends, but none of influencing her involvement in trade missions.
Keir Starmer has said though that whilst he doesn’t care about the Prime Minister’s private life, he does care about “increasing evidence of cronyism and the casual relationship between taxpayers’ money and friends, colleagues and donors to the Tory Party.”
Starmer said that if he was Prime Minister he would “make it a priority to clean up Westminster,” and that he knows “what tough decisions to clean up public life look like” as a result of his time as director of public prosecutions when he had to decide whether to prosecute MPs over expenses claims.
Of course whether or not Starmer ever gets the keys to Number 10 is a huge ‘if.’ The polls continue to show that despite the calamitous last 12 months Boris Johnson and the Tory government have faced, Labour continue to trail in the polls, as it seems Starmer is doing little to inspire anyone.
