Labour accuses Boris Johnson of creating a ‘cash-for-access culture’

Anneliese Dodds, Labour’s co-chair, said the UK had become ‘a laundromat for kleptocrats’ dirty money’. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters

Labour has accused Boris Johnson of creating a “cash-for-access culture” in the Conservative party after it emerged that a secret advisory board of wealthy donors were regularly invited to private briefings with the prime minister and his top team.

Concerns were raised when the Sunday Times reported that members of the board, whose investments spanned property, construction and big tobacco, lobbied the government to provide more support for their businesses during the Covid crisis.