Boris Johnson's Downing Street refurbishment: might a law have been broken?

By Sam Power, Lecturer in Corruption Analysis (Politics), University of Sussex

The Electoral Commission has announced that Boris Johnson, the, erm, prime minister of the United Kingdom, is under investigation. Well, to be precise, the Commission will investigate whether any transactions relating to refurbishment undertaken at Johnson’s flat are an offence under political financing law. In fact, in its official statement, the Commission suggested that there are “reasonable grounds to suspect an offence or offences may have occurred”. But what has actually happened here? What are the laws that might have been broken? And why is it a problem anyway?

The row begins,…

Read complete article

~	The historic repatriation of a giant lizard in a jar from Scotland to Jamaica is more than a symbolic gesture

~	Tech companies must help the fight aganst extremists using encryption: ASIO boss

~	Reflections from the Secretary General on the state of human rights in 2023/24

~	Amnesty International sounds alarm on a watershed moment for international law amid flagrant rule-breaking by governments and corporate actors

~	UK’s newly passed ‘Safety in Rwanda’ bill is anything but safe: UN officials

~	Sticking your neck out for the PWHL: A call to mandate neck guards in women’s hockey

~	International student resentment brews but allowing fewer students into Canada isn’t the answer

~	From Gallipoli to Gaza: remembering the Anzacs not as a ‘coming of age’ tale but as a lesson for the future

~	The high and mighty Himalayas: A biodiversity hotbed facing significant challenges

~	Why the term ‘DEI’ is being weaponized as a racist dog whistle