Lockdown Dinner with Tory peer who funded renovations

Boris Johnson hosted the Tory peer who funded a lavish refurbishment of his Downing Street flat for dinner the day after the second national coronavirus lockdown came into force in an apparent breach of the rules, leaked files suggest.

- Pippa Crerar Jessica Elgot

David Brownlow, who provided £58,000 to cover some of the cost of the renovations, which included £2,260 worth of "gold" wallpaper, joined the then prime minister in the small dining room at No 10 on Friday 6 November 2020.

Just 24 hours earlier, tough lockdown restrictions banning people from any social meetings indoors had been introduced to help control the spread of the virus. "Unless we act, we could see deaths in this country running at several thousand a day," Johnson had warned.

In WhatsApp exchanges later that month, Johnson messaged Lord Brownlow to complain that parts of his No 11 flat looked a "bit of a tip", asking him for "approvals" so that his interior decorator, Lulu Lytle, could "get on with it".

His then ethics adviser, Christopher Geidt, later found that Johnson had not broken the ministerial code over the payments for the Downing Street flat refurbishment but criticised him for acting "unwisely".

Johnson's apparent meeting with Brownlow after lockdown restrictions were imposed is one of several potential further lockdown breaches by the former prime minister revealed in leaked files seen by the Guardian. They raise further questions about Johnson's integrity during his turbulent three years in office.