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Louise Thomas
Editor
Downing Street was like a “crack den” when Boris Johnson arrived, the former prime minister has claimed as he defended his £200,000 refurbishment of the flat.
Mr Johnson was embroiled in a scandal after it emerged a donor had initially paid for the lavish overhaul, which included 10 rolls of wallpaper costing £225 each and a £7,000 rug, revealed by The Independent at the time.
After the Conservative Party initially settled the bill, including with a donation from Tory donor Lord Brownlow, Mr Johnson reimbursed them out of his own pocket.
Asked on LBC on Tuesday about the refurbishment, Mr Johnson denied the £200,000 figure, adding that “it wasn’t as much as that”.
He insisted he paid for it himself, and added: “Frankly, once I pulled the carpets out of the flat in number 11, which is where we lived, because Dylan was then in the stages of being — the whole thing was looking a bit like a crack den to be totally honest, and it needed to be refurbished.”
The flat revamp, which became known as “Wallpapergate”, was one in a series of scandals surrounding Mr Johnson’s leadership which ultimately led to his party turning against him and forcing his dramatic resignation.
The comments came as Mr Johnson laid into Sir Keir Starmer over the freebie row which has dominated Labour’s first three months in government.
The ex-PM told LBC: “I have no donors paying for my suits. Or spectacles. Who pays for your spectacles? You pay for your spectacles, don’t you? It’s unbelievable. I mean, the guy, he’s a silk, right? I mean, he must be worth a bob or two. Why has he got some guy paying for his spectacles?”
Mr Johnson went on to say it “looks corrupt” that prominent Labour donor Lord Alli was then given a pass to Downing Street after gifting thousands of pounds of clothing and glasses to Sir Keir and other Labour figures.
Mr Johnson also received thousands of pounds worth of freebies and donations from Tory donors, including £23,853 towards the cost of his wedding to Carrie Symonds in 2022.
