Boris Johnson is cleared of breaking Commons rules over £15,000 Mustique 'freebie' with Carrie in latest narrow escape after MPs OVERRULE sleaze watchdog - but slate 'unusual' arrangements and say PM DIDN'T KNOW how the trip was being funded

Boris Johnson was today dramatically cleared of breaking Commons rules over a £15,000 Mustique 'freebie' with Carrie - despite the sleaze watchdog condemning his behaviour and the 'unusual' arrangements. 

The cross-party standards committee found the PM had made an 'accurate and complete' declaration about the holiday in December 2019, saying it was a donation from Carphone Warehouse founder David Ross even though the couple did not stay in his villa.

However, the committee - chaired by Labour MP Chris Bryant - had to overrule standards commissioner Kathryn Stone. She had concluded that Mr Johnson did breach the Code of Conduct during a 15-month wrangle after initially failing to provide a full explanation, slamming him for 'not showing the accountability required of those in public life'.

The report also suggested that the premier himself did not know exactly how the jaunt was being funded until after he arrived on Mustique and realised he was not staying in Mr Ross's own property. 

It is the latest escape for Mr Johnson after the government's adviser on ministerial interests said in May that he acted 'unwisely' by not being more 'rigorous' in finding out who funded lavish refurbishment work on his Downing Street flat - but did not breach the rules. 

Speaking on a visit to a business in London today, Mr Johnson said he had not seen the report. 'But as I understand it the committee has found there was not case to answer.'   

Boris Johnson was today dramatically cleared of breaking Commons rules over a £15,000 Mustique 'freebie' with Carrie (pictured together at Wembley last night)

The villa on Mustique where the pair are believed to have stayed in December 2019 

The Prime Minister said he and carrie (pictured on a different holiday) got the villa as a last-minute bargain

Boris Johnson declared the holiday accommodation on Mustique was a donation from Carphone Warehouse founder David Ross 

Phone tycoon and Tory donor with plush home in Mustique

David Ross, 48, is the co-founder of Carphone Warehouse who has given millions to the Tories.

A friend of former prime minister David Cameron, he advised the Conservatives on education policy and used part of his fortune to set up 25 academy schools.

Born in Grimsby to the wealthy family behind Ross Frozen Foods, he was educated privately at Uppingham School, where he met his future business partner, Charles Dunstone.

They set up Carphone Warehouse in 1989 with an investment of £6,000. 

His girlfriends have included rugby player Will Carling’s ex-fiancee Ali Cockayne, Ralph Lauren muse Saffron Aldridge and former model Shelley Ross, with whom he has a son. 

He left Carphone Warehouse in 2008 and now dedicates much of his time to good causes through the David Ross Foundation and the David Ross Education Trust.

His home on Mustique is one of a string of properties he owns around the world, including in the UK and Switzerland.  

The row over Mr Johnson's holiday from Boxing Day 2019 to January 5, 2020 started after he declared the £15,000 cost was a 'benefit in kind' from Mr Ross. 

Mr Ross initially denied having paid for it, and it appears there was a complicated villa swap arrangement that meant Mr Johnson ended up staying in a different property owned by an American family. 

The watchdog and the Prime Minister have been locked in a behind-the-scenes battle over whether he obeyed Commons rules whereby MPs must reveal details of all financial donations and benefits. 

Mr Johnson funded other aspects of the holiday apart from the accommodation, according to the report. 

The committee said: 'Mr Johnson himself has stated that the arrangement for this holiday were ''unusual''.

'By Mr Johnson's and Mr Ross's own admission, the arrangements for funding Mr Johnson's holiday accommodation were ad hoc and informal, and do not appear to have been fully explained to Mr Johnson at the outset.

'Mr Johnson initially agreed to a straightforward arrangement, but when it became apparent, within several days of his arrival, that he was not staying in Mr Ross's villa, the arrangements became more opaque.

'It is unsatisfactory that neither Mr Ross nor Mr Johnson explained the arrangements to the Commissioner until last autumn and that Mr Ross only provided minimal information on the arrangement this Spring and in response to our own enquiries.'

The report added: 'This matter could have been concluded many months ago if more strenuous efforts had been made to dispel the uncertainty. 

'Given that Mr Johnson was twice reprimanded by our predecessor Committee in the last Parliament in the space of four months for 'an over-casual attitude towards obeying the rules of the House', we would have expected him to have gone the extra mile to ensure there was no uncertainty about the arrangements.' 

The Commissioner initially found Mr Johnson in breach of paragraph 14 of the Code because he did not 'make sufficient inquiries to establish the full facts about the funding arrangements for his free accommodation, either before his holiday, as he should have done, or in 2020'.

Ms Stone said the PM should have uncovered 'definitively who was to fund the free accommodation he had been offered, and what arrangements had been made to pay for it' before accepting the accommodation.

'I also find that Mr Johnson has not shown the accountability required of those in public life,' she added. 

In a brutal memorandum to the committee, Ms Stone wrote: 'I accept that Mr Johnson had originally expected that the villa would be owned by Mr Ross. 

'I find it surprising that, when he realised that he was to stay elsewhere, Mr Johnson did not establish the full facts about who was the owner of the villa, how the villa would be funded and the value of the benefit, before accepting the accommodation as a gift. 

'Mr Johnson has told me that he believes the owners received a payment for his use of the accommodation. 

'At another point he told me that Mr Ross arranged to meet the 'notional costs' by making his own villa available to the Mustique Company on future dates. He has not explained how these two accounts relate to each other.'

She went on: 'The rules require Members to fulfil 'conscientiously' the requirement of the House in respect of the registration of interests in the Register of Members' Financial Interests. 

Mr Johnson and his then-girlfriend were unwinding at one of the world’s most luxurious hideaways

Use of the villa was donated to Mr Johnson by Mr Ross through a complicated swap arrangement  

The standards commissioner did not question the £15,000 valuation of use of the property  

'Because he did not make sufficient inquiries to establish the full facts about the funding arrangements for his free accommodation, either before his holiday, as he should have done, or in 2020, I find that Mr Johnson has not fulfilled conscientiously the House's requirements for registration.'  

In a clear hint that she wanted a more severe punishment than a rap on the knuckles, Ms Stone pointed out that Mr Johnson had 'breached the registration rules on three previous occasions'. 

'He has been referred to the Committee on Standards on two of these, in 2017–19. 

'On the last occasion the Committee said, 'Should we conclude in future that Mr Johnson has committed any further breaches of the rules on registration, we will regard this as a matter which may call for more serious sanction'. 

'I therefore refer this matter to the Committee on Standards for their consideration.'

Doubts had been raised about whether the true cost of the villa would have been higher, but Ms Stone found 'no reason to dispute' the £15,000 valuation. 

In his response to the committee, Mr Johnson insisted he did not accept he had broken the code. 

'I emphasise that when taking steps to enter information on the Register, I acted in good faith and after obtaining advice. I understand that this has never been disputed,' he wrote. 

'My office sought and received advice from both the Registrar and the Cabinet Office's Propriety & Ethics team. 

'Furthermore, it has never been suggested that the information I initially provided to the Registrar was itself inaccurate in any respect.' 

He added: 'I have some difficulty in understanding how the Commissioner has found such a breach in circumstances where it is not said that the entry in the Register is in fact inaccurate or incomplete. 

'If the entry is not inaccurate or incomplete, there would be no relevant facts remaining to be ascertained and recorded in the Register.' 

Mr Johnson has previously been in hot water with the committee – and Ms Stone. 

In 2018, before he became Prime Minister, he made a 'full and unreserved' apology to MPs for failing to declare more than £50,000 in income and registering nine payments after the required 28-day deadline.

Ms Stone said the breaches were 'neither inadvertent nor minor'. 

Some Tory MPs had feared that if Mr Johnson was found to have broken the rules again the committee would have recommended his suspension from the Commons, the first prime minister to endure such a humiliation. 

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said: 'This whole murky affair shows Boris Johnson has a casual relationship with the truth and a flagrant disregard for the most basic standards of integrity and trustworthiness that we would expect from a Prime Minister.

'The way Johnson handles his personal finances mirrors the way he governs the country - chaos and confusion.'

Simon Walters for the Daily Mail

The decision by the Commons Committee on Standards is a relief for Boris Johnson – and a victory over Westminster's 'sleazebuster' Kathryn Stone.

Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Miss Stone, who had investigated the Prime Minister's 2019 holiday with then-fiancee Carrie Symonds to the Caribbean island, had ruled that Boris broke the rules that say MPs must 'conscientiously fulfil' their duty to declare all financial interests.

Boris refused to accept her verdict. 

And now the committee, made up of MPs and independent lay members, and which has the final say on such matters, has sided with him, saying his account of who paid for the trip was 'accurate and complete'.

The Daily Mail disclosed in May how Miss Stone and Mr Johnson were engaged in a fierce behind-the-scenes battle over the holiday. 

Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Kathryn Stone, who had investigated the Prime Minister's 2019 holiday with then-fiancee Carrie Symonds to Mustique, had ruled that Boris broke the rules that say MPs must 'conscientiously fulfil' their duty to declare all financial interests. Above: Mr Johnson on holiday in 2008 

Information obtained by this newspaper showed that the commissioner had told the Prime Minister that the luxury winter break was worth more than double the £15,000 he had declared in the Commons register.

Nor did Miss Stone believe, as Mr Johnson had claimed, that the bill had been met by Tory donor and Carphone Warehouse co-founder David Ross.

And he had failed to meet his duty to the Parliamentary code of conduct by disclosing financial interests, she said.

In robust exchanges with Miss Stone, Mr Johnson categorically denied any wrongdoing and claimed he secured the villa as a late booking for a heavily discounted £15,000.

He said confusion over who paid the bill and whose villa he stayed in arose from the fact Mustique villas were like Costa Brava 'time shares'.

If the committee had backed Miss Stone, Mr Johnson would have faced the humiliation of being suspended as an MP.

Information obtained by this newspaper showed that the commissioner had told the Prime Minister that the luxury winter break was worth more than double the £15,000 he had declared in the Commons register. Above: Mr Johnson's wife Carrie during the trip

But it rejected her claim that he had broken Parliamentary rules and instead gave him a rap over the knuckles for not explaining more promptly how the trip was funded. 

It is his second narrow escape in just two months over allegations of financial wrongdoing. 

In May, a separate investigation into who paid for the makeover of the Downing Street flat he now shares with wife Carrie found there was no conflict of interest.

However, Lord Geidt, the Prime Minister's adviser on ministerial standards, said he had behaved 'unwisely' in letting the refurbishment go ahead without checking who was footing the bill. 

It is an almost identical outcome to this week's Mustique inquiry – and consistent with Mr Johnson's patchy record on such matters.

Despite his fierce intellect he is famously disorganised.

In robust exchanges with Miss Stone, Mr Johnson categorically denied any wrongdoing and claimed he secured the villa as a late booking for a heavily discounted £15,000. Above: The villa where Mr Johnson is believed to have stayed

Though he has earned a fortune from his writing and enjoys a £170,000 prime ministerial salary, his approach to his personal finances is about as orderly as his hairstyle. 

In 2018 he was forced to apologise to MPs for failing to declare more than £52,000 in income after the Standards Committee said he displayed an 'over-casual attitude' to the rules.

Accused of late declarations in the Commons register on nine occasions, Miss Stone said it indicated a 'lack of attention, rather than inadvertent error'.

Her verdict on his Mustique holiday suggests she is no longer prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. Fortunately for Mr Johnson, the Parliamentary committee has been more forgiving.

His consistently high popularity ratings show most voters take a similarly generous view towards his personal conduct.

But with growing public complaints about a Government where there is 'one rule for them and another for everyone else,' the Prime Minister will need to be more careful in future.