Incompetent Boris Johnson forgets to declare 33% shareholding

rwendland Thu Apr 24, 2008 at 03:18:42 AM GMT Print-friendly version Facebook

Boris Johnson has not declared his 33% shareholding in a TV production company he jointly set up about 20 months ago. The MPs code of conduct requires any shareholding greater than 15% to be declared in the MPs' Register of Interests.



MPs who breach the rule are liable to investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, and Karen Buck has requested an investigation.

Johnson did declare a £30,000 fee from the company, Finland Station Ltd, for filming a documentary The Flame of Rome. There has been no dividend yet from the shareholding. Finland Station has yet to produce trading accounts, so it is impossible to judge how much Johnson's stake in the company is worth - if his share was worth £60,000+ that would be a second requirement to declare.

Earlier this year Johnson was reprimanded by the Electoral Commission for not correctly declaring £45,000 of donations.



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Incompetent Boris Johnson forgets to declare 33% shareholding | 7 comments (7 topical)

Re: Hain (#2)

by madasafish on Thu Apr 24, 2008 at 02:12:46 PM GMT

Hain of course did not declare over £100,000 in donations for his contests as Deputy Leader.


Re: Hain (#3)

by rwendland on Thu Apr 24, 2008 at 02:25:58 PM GMT

Yep, and Hain resigned. Are you proposing Boris withdraws from the election?


[ Parent ]

Boris's interest in TV co. (#4)

by angelneptunestar on Thu Apr 24, 2008 at 02:44:18 PM GMT

Boris declared the £30K, so this is just hair splitting. It's hardly a huge deal, is it?


Re: Boris's interest in TV co. (#5)

by rwendland on Thu Apr 24, 2008 at 04:04:24 PM GMT

It's a very plainly stated requirement in MPs Code of Conduct: "greater than 15 per cent of the issued share capital of the company", on the third line of the Category 9 Registrable Interest section - not hidden away in a sub-section or appendix.

You would hope someone hoping to run a multi-billion budget could get an obvious important detail like this right. It's not like adherence to The Code of Conduct has been out of the news lately. Quite frankly, a boo-boo like this is pretty moronic for a MP.


[ Parent ]

Re: Boris's interest in TV co. (#6)

by madasafish on Thu Apr 24, 2008 at 04:16:36 PM GMT

"Quite frankly, a boo-boo like this is pretty moronic for a MP."

So he joins a long list:
Harriet Harman: electoral donations.
Wendy Alexander: electoral donations.
Hain : as above
and so on...

Seems  like a lot of MPs are morons.


[ Parent ]

Re: Boris's interest in TV co. (#7)

by rwendland on Thu Apr 24, 2008 at 04:49:56 PM GMT

I'm not seeking to defend moronic Labour MPs!

Though Harriet Harman's case seems rather different to me. It was Abraham's agent who broke PPERA by not disclosing to Harriet that she was acting as an agent (as required by PPERA) - she was a permissable donor so there was no way Harriet could know there was a problem here. Harriet also, as I recall, didn't declare a loan from herself to her campaign - but this is really a loan from herself to herself, and many MPs must use their own money in campaigning; whether this needs disclosing must be very borderline and I can forgive some misunderstanding there.


[ Parent ]

Re: Boris's interest in TV co. (#8)

by swatantra on Fri Apr 25, 2008 at 01:56:20 PM GMT

I'm afraid that Squire Johnson is so disorganised an individual that even a guide dog strapped to his left leg wouldn't of much help to him. And to imagine such a plonker in charge of a great City is unthinkable. 


[ Parent ]

Incompetent Boris Johnson forgets to declare 33% shareholding | 7 comments (7 topical)