LABOUR accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of “setting the bar woefully low for our country’s public life” today, as the party demanded he reopen the investigation into refurbishments to his Downing Street flat. 

The party’s deputy leader Angela Rayner wrote to independent adviser on ministers’ interests Lord Geidt to highlight inconsistencies between his report into the case earlier this year and the Electoral Commission’s findings on Thursday.

The watchdog fined the Tory Party £17,800 after revealing that the PM sent a WhatsApp message to Lord Brownlow, the sole donor behind the luxury makeover, in November 2020, asking for additional money.

This was despite the claim in Lord Geidt’s report that the PM had said he was not aware of “either the fact or the method of the costs of refurbishing the apartment having been paid” until February this year.

Ms Rayner said that the fresh revelations show that “either the Prime Minister knew that Lord Brownlow was funding the work and failed to declare it, or he was not certain of the person providing the gift but nonetheless accepted it.”

The party has asked if Lord Geidt, who can only instigate investigations at the behest of the PM, was made aware of these messages and demanded they be published.

Ms Rayner added: “We now know that in the days before he imposed the 2021 winter lockdown, the Prime Minister went from allegedly hosting an illegal party in Downing Street to asking super-rich Tory donors to secretly fund the luxury refurb of his flat.

“Not only has the Conservative Party broken the law, but its Prime Minister has made a mockery of the standards we expect.”