Boris's curious relationship with an american entrepreneur is the real story of the week | thearticle

The Supreme Court’s explosive judgement is dominating the news again today – and it feels unlikely that we’ll hear about much else this week. The calls for the prime minister’s resignation

are coming thick and fast: everyone from Jeremy Corbyn to Nigel Farage wants Boris out. We can debate about whether the Supreme Court’s decision makes his position untenable until the cows

come home. But the fact is, he won’t resign. So instead of wasting any more breath discussing it, perhaps it’s time we turned our attention to the real story of the week: the potential

scandal unfolding over his curious relationship with an American entrepreneur. The Prime Minister has now been given two weeks by London’s Assembly to explain his relationship with Jennifer

Arcuri, who received up to £126,000 in public funds during Johnson’s eight-year tenure as mayor of London. Len Duvall, chair of the Greater London Assembly oversight committee, has written

to the Prime Minister requesting “details and a timeline of all contact” with Arcuri during his time in office. To reiterate, our current Prime Minister is facing serious allegations that he

failed to declare potential conflicts of interest over his, er, close “friendship” with businesswoman and former model, Jennifer Arcuri. It is also alleged that Arcuri was given

preferential treatment in being allowed to join overseas trade missions led by Johnson as mayor, despite her firm not meeting the eligibility criteria. It gets worse. Yesterday, the _Sun_

reported a fourth taxpayer handout worth more than £12,000 when he was London Mayor. The Prime Minister has denied helping Ms Acuri win public money, but has said little else on the matter

so far. The pair are said to have been so close that their friends called them ‘BoJen’, and Ms Arcuri posted many photos of them together on social media. Sources told the _Sunday Times_

that Johnson was a regular visitor to the entrepreneur’s top-floor flat in Shoreditch, east London. One can only speculate about what the notorious ladies’ man was getting up to on these

alleged visits. What is particularly worrying about this story is that people who should know better are either staying quiet or defending the indefensible. Are the public even interested?

Check the comments below any article regarding the issue, and you’ll see plenty of Leavers desperately defending or dismissing the issue. But this is bigger than Brexit. These allegations

must be proved or disproved. We’re not quite at bunga bunga levels of corruption, but if we tolerate this, we’re setting a worrying direction of travel. As mayor of London, Johnson was bound

by the Greater London Authority’s code of conduct “to declare any private interests relating to their public duties and to take steps to resolve any conflicts arising in a way that protects

the public interest”. He was barred from providing any undue benefits to friends. It is alleged that the prime minister may have broken these rules. That’s called misconduct in public

office, and if the Prime Minister cannot provide a satisfactory answer to these allegations, he is not fit for his office and should resign. Maintaining high standards means exposing

corruption where it exists and punishing those responsible for it. If we simply brush this off, a major precedent will be set, and corruption will become insidious.