Why did Cameron’s lobbyist pay for Boris Johnson’s flight home from the Gulf?

Last week we asked why Boris Johnson sneaked off to San Francisco, charged the trip to the taxpayer and refused to explain what he’d been up to.

Yet it seems Boris Johnson’s overseas trips are rarely as simple as they might be.

Today, calls have been made for an investigation into Boris Johnson’s return from the Gulf to attend Margaret Thatcher’s funeral. Specifically, why were his flights to home paid for by Emirates Airline and Lynton Crosby’s company CT Partners? Why was Boris travelling with Lynton Crosby anyway, when the Australian no longer works for the Mayor? (He now works, instead, for the PM – which is murky too, as Jon Trickett noted earlier today).

And why was this declared only after London Assembly Member Len Duvall made enquiries about why it was not on the Mayor’s register? (on June 5th, 20 days past the deadline by which gifts should be declared).

Duvall has today written to the GLA’s Monitoring Officer calling for an official investigation into why the flights were not declared on time and whether the Mayor has received any other gifts and hospitality that he has failed to declare. In a statement this morning he said:

“The Mayor’s trip to the Gulf was a great opportunity to increase investment and trade between London and a growing economy. However, Boris’ choice of travelling partner was bizarre. Taking Lynton Crosby on this trip made no sense at all, it looks like blatant cronyism.

“Now we find out that the Mayor had his return flight to the UK paid for by Mr Crosby’s company and Emirates, but Boris failed to declare these in his gift and hospitality register for 48 days and only did so after I raised questions. This is totally unacceptable, Londoners need to have the utmost confidence in the Mayor’s dealings and need complete transparency. At a time when questions of lobbyists’ influence have been raised at a national level, we need to make sure that London’s government is as clean and open as possible. I have written to the City Hall Monitoring Officer asking for an investigation into the whole affair.

“Crosby supposedly doesn’t work for the Mayor any longer, and works as David Cameron’s new election chief, his company mainly operates outside the UK, he’s an Australian citizen and we don’t know whether Mr Crosby or his company pay UK tax. It’s not clear why Crosby went, what he gained and how this could possibly benefit Londoners. Why didn’t the Mayor take representatives from London based PR companies with him if he wanted to promote this sector?”

All good questions. But I wouldn’t expect Boris to answer them. He doesn’t like scrutiny…