Exclusive: Leak exposes how former leader has used publicly subsidised office to manage commercial interests A trove of leaked data from Boris Johnson’s private office reveals how the former prime minister has been profiting from contacts and influence he gained in office in a possible breach of ethics and lobbying rules. The Boris Files contain emails, letters, invoices, speeches and business contracts. They shine a spotlight on the inner workings of a publicly subsidised company Johnson established after leaving Downing Street in September 2022. Johnson lobbied a senior Saudi official he had met while in office, asking him to share a pitch with the petrostate’s autocratic crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, for a firm he co-chairs. The ex-PM received more than £200,000 from a hedge fund after meeting Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro – contrary to statements he was not paid. While in office, Johnson appears to have held a secret meeting with Peter Thiel, the billionaire who founded the controversial US data firm Palantir, months before it was given a role managing NHS data. In an apparent breach of Covid pandemic rules, Johnson hosted a dinner for a Tory peer who financed a lavish refurbishment of his Downing Street flat, a day after the second national Covid-19 lockdown came into force. Continue reading...