Boris Johnson has offered MPs a “full and unreserved apology” over the late declaration of £53,000 in income. He was forced to make an apology to the House of Commons after he repeatedly failed to register payments from his newspaper column and books within the set time limit.
In a report, the parliamentary commissioner for standards Kathryn Stone said that while the Conservative MP had fully cooperated and promised to address the issue, the amount of money registered late – almost £53,000– and the number of times it had happened “suggested a lack of attention to the house’s requirements, rather than inadvertent error”.
Under parliamentary rules, MPs are allowed to earn money beyond their official duties but authorities must be notified within 28 days so it can be entered into the register of MPs’ financial interests.
Stone’s report said that in October she received a letter of complaint about Johnson’s weekly column in the Daily Telegraph, for which he is paid nearly £23,000 a month and which he resumed after quitting the cabinet in July, saying this did not seem to have been properly registered.
Johnson had now assured her he had a system in place to prevent this happening again, Stone added.
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