Boris Johnson's messages to a pro-Brexit businessman reveal Downing Street's favoritism

The senior officials who monitor everything that happens in Downing Street, so that nothing is outside the law, already a few months ago showed their concern about the joy with which Boris Johnson exchanged wasaps and text messages with friends and allies.

He has had the same mobile number for a decade, and has happily handed it out during that time.

The leak of his exchanges with James Dyson, the pro-Brexit businessman he asked for help at the beginning of the pandemic, has confirmed an open secret: the lightness and favoritism with which conservatives reach agreements or launch public contracts.

"I'll fix it for you tomorrow," Johnson assured the entrepreneur engineer who revolutionized the world of vacuum cleaners and today is in charge of a multimillion-dollar business that is committed to technological innovation in household appliances. The Government then needed "Dyson magic" to manufacture at full speed the artificial respirators that were in short supply in ICUs when the health crisis broke out a year ago. The famous inventor wanted to help his country, but not at the cost of jeopardizing the tax advantages for his company and his employees that he had achieved by moving the business years earlier to Singapore. “Rishi says that everything is settled !!! We need you here, ”Johnson insisted in his text messages. Rishi was Rishi Sunak, the Minister of Economy,who two weeks later announced in the House of Commons that his department would ensure that the tax status of those who offered aid to the United Kingdom during the pandemic would not change.

More information

• Sir James Dyson, the 'King of Vacuum Cleaners', accused of hypocrite and deserter

• Johnson orders investigation into former prime minister Cameron's role as advisor to finance company Greensill

Despite criticism from the Labor opposition, which is calling for a parliamentary investigation into the matter, Johnson is calm.

The country was going through a huge crisis, and he did what he had to do in a decisive way: “I have no need to apologize for having moved heaven and earth and doing everything possible, as any prime minister would have done in those circumstances, to ensure that the citizens of this country had the necessary respirators, ”he responded to his opponent, Keir Starmer, during the control session to the Government on Wednesday.

As happened with the messages sent to members of the Executive by former Prime Minister David Cameron, in which he asked for public help for the bankrupt Greensill, which he then advised, the possible illegality is very diffuse. Is a minister or head of government obliged to reveal the content of their mobile phone conversations? The Ministerial Code of Conduct - a sacred manual for good government - requires that a

Servant civilian

(prestigious UK officials) be present at any meeting where business is discussed or public engagements are made. WhatsApp has come to blur those limits and controls. That is why several media pointed out last week the growing concern that existed in Whitehall - as the network that encompasses the prime minister's office and the rest of the government departments is called, due to its location - before the joy with which deputies were texting, businessmen, advisers and members of the Government. Simon Case, Johnson's chief of staff and head of the body of senior officials, would have recommended to the prime minister, according to the same media, that he change his phone number. Downing Street has denied, albeit only half, that suggestion.

"Sordid, sordid, sordid", the Labor Party member Starmer repeated in Parliament, who has seen in these episodes of favoritism and tricks the opportunity to make a dent in a government that is experiencing a moment of relative tranquility and popular support, thanks to the success of the vaccination campaign. “The prime minister gets tax benefits for his friends. The Minister of Economy pulls the strings to help businessman Lex Greensill. The Health Minister even goes to have a few drinks with him, and David Cameron sends text messages like crazy to anyone who responds to him, ”the Labor leader denounced. Downing Street's response has been to launch an investigation, which looks more like a hunt, to find the person responsible for the leak of Johnson's messages. Even if,Driven by apparent outrage that his good repute was being questioned, the prime minister promised to make public the content of the text messages he exchanged with Dyson, his team has so far been unable to pinpoint when and what precise content. will be the one that shows.

As the scandal gains traction, new private exchanges begin to emerge between Johnson and other relevant figures.

For example, the personal request for help sent by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohamed Bin Salmán, to help him buy the English soccer team Newcastle United, after the Premier League had banned the investment.

The conservative majority that supports Johnson refused to open an investigation into the Greensill scandal, but two commissions have sidestepped the mandate and began to probe.

"Contracts with friends, donations from the shadows, dubious deals ... the trickle is beginning to become a torrent," warned the

number two

of the Labor Party, Angela Rayner.