Prince Charles, the Tory Treasurer & Boris Johnson’s No.10 flat. A tale of ‘Old Corruption’
In the wider story of the links between Prince Charles, his nephew and Tory fund raiser Ben Elliott and Boris Johnson the Sunday Times reported an interesting detail that hasn’t had coverage.
Prince Charles successfully raised funds to save the historic Dumfries House in Scotland. Part of the plan was to build Knockroon a model community similar to Poundbury near Dorchester. After the financial crash of 2008 this proved problematic and only 34 out of 770 houses were built.
A donor bought 9 of those houses. He was Lord Brownlow of Shurlock Row. He is a property developer. Lord Brownlow, a friend of Prince Charles, also paid the £58,000 for the renovation of Boris Johnson’s flat that it had become clear could not come from public funds and from which also Tory Treasurer Elliott steered clear. Lord Brownlow was Vice Chair of the Tory Party 2017-2020.
The Tory Party has now been fined £17,800 by the Electoral Commission for failing to properly account for the payments (BBC report below). While the Tories regularly tread a fine line between dodgy and illegal activities here they have fallen on the wrong side of it(they have 28 days to appeal)
It was Old Corruption in the sense of William Cobbett, a political system based not on merit or democracy but on who you know.
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