Police Watchdog Asked to Investigate Johnson by London Official

(Bloomberg) -- A London government official asked a police complaints body to probe whether British Prime Minister Boris Johnson should face an investigation over his links to Jennifer Arcuri, whose companies allegedly received public funds when Johnson was mayor of Britain’s capital.

“We have received a referral from the Monitoring Officer of the Greater London Authority regarding a conduct matter against Boris Johnson and we are currently assessing this,” the Independent Office for Police Conduct said in a statement on its website. “This will take time to thoroughly assess and consider before any decision is taken as to whether it is necessary to investigate this matter.”

According to British press reports, the GLA official is seeking an investigation of misconduct in public office after its ethics watchdog received allegations that Johnson’s friendship with Arcuri allowed the American businesswoman and her company to receive benefits she wouldn’t have been entitled to.

An official at the prime minister’s office familiar with the matter said the referral to the police investigator was politically motivated.

A week ago, the Sunday Times newspaper reported that Arcuri’s businesses were given 126,000 pounds ($155,000) worth of grants and that she accompanied three foreign trade missions led by Johnson in his role as mayor between 2008 and 2016. The Sunday Times said the government has frozen a grant of 100,000 pounds to Arcuri’s company, Hacker House, pending a review.

Johnson has previously declined to comment on the report. Because the mayor -- now Sadiq Khan of the Labour party -- oversees the capital’s Metropolitan Police force, the GLA raised the matter with the IOPC.

Johnson has been prime minister for two months. He suffered a legal defeat Tuesday when the Supreme Court ruled his suspension of the legislature was not lawful, and ordered members of Parliament to return to work. Johnson had told Queen Elizabeth II to suspend Parliament for five weeks in the run up to the Oct. 31 deadline for leaving the European Union.

To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Buckley in London at tbuckley25@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Eric Pfanner at epfanner1@bloomberg.net, Keith Campbell, James Amott

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