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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Politics
Lizzy Buchan

Boris Johnson accepts nearly £25k in accommodation for his family from Tory billionaire

Boris Johnson has accepted accommodation worth nearly £25,000 from a billionaire Tory donor and his wife since the start of September.

The former Prime Minister and his family are reportedly being put up in a luxury cottage on the Cotswolds estate owned by Lord and Lady Bamford after Mr Johnson was booted out of Downing Street.

JCB boss Lord Bamford and his wife previously stumped up £23,853 for Mr Johnson's wedding party in July, footing the bill for portable toilets, flowers, a South African barbecue and an ice cream van.

Official declarations also reveal they paid for marquee hire, catering and waiting staff for the lavish bash at their Daylesford Estate after the then PM was forced to cancel plans to hold it at Chequers.

In his latest entry in the register of members' interests, Mr Johnson declared "concessionary use of accommodation for me and my family in October, estimated value £10,000" from Lady Bamford.

Boris and Carrie Johnson had a small wedding in 2021 and held a lavish bash this summer (Downing Street via Getty Images)

He accepted an identical donation in September, as well as clocking up £3,500 in separate accommodation from Lord and Lady Bamford between September 16 and October 15.

The Johnsons, who jetted back from the Caribbean for Mr Johnson's botched leadership bid, are staying on the Cotswolds estate while they wait to buy a house in south London, according to the Mail on Sunday.

Carrie Johnson has posted social media updates of a roaring log fire and picking blackberries with their young children Wilf and Romy.

A spokesman for Mr Johnson did not respond to requests for comment on the latest declaration.

Lord Bamford is a long-time backer of the ex-PM and supported his 2019 bid to be Tory leader.

Ex-PM Boris Johnson drove a JCB through a foam wall at a campaign event in 2019 (PA)

Mr Johnson visited the JCB plant in Staffordshire during the 2019 election, where he famously smashed through a fake wall with a digger branded with the words 'Get Brexit Done'.

He also squeezed in a tour of a new JCB facility in Vadodara, Gujarat, while on a taxpayer-funded visit to India in April.

Lord Bamford's wife, Lady Carole Bamford, established the upmarket Daylesford Organic Farm, with a chain of shops selling its produce across London.

It comes as Tory backbench chief Sir Graham Brady appeared to confirm Mr Johnson's claim that he had enough supporters to challenge Rishi Sunak in the recent Tory leadership contest.

The ex-PM dramatically dropped out of the race at the eleventh hour, claiming he had the 100 backers needed to get onto the ballot paper but could not unite the party.

His comments were met with scepticism as his tally of declared supporters was much lower.

But 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady said "two candidates" had reached the threshold, and "one of them decided not to then submit his nomination".

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