BORIS Johnson has said he has full confidence in beleaguered housing secretary Robert Jenrick, despite yet more revelations about the Tory minister and his relationship with billionaire property developer and former pornography magnate Richard Desmond.
Earlier this year the two men sat beside each other at a Tory fundraising event, where Desmond showed the frontbencher “three or four minutes” of a promotional video about the Westferry Printworks scheme in east London.
Jenrick later overruled planning inspectors to sign off on the £1 billion development for 1500 homes.
Two weeks later, Desmond, the former owner of the Daily Express, donated £12,000 to the Tory party.
The controversial scheme was rushed through before new community infrastructure levy rates in the Tower Hamlets borough of London came in, which would have cost the developer £45 million.
Jenrick later had to quash his own approval, conceding that the decision was “unlawful” due to “apparent bias”.
READ MORE: Robert Jenrick denies 'false allegations' in Tory donor row
Documents, released to the Commons Communities Select Committee on Wednesday revealed that Jenrick gave Desmond his phone number after a Tory fundraising dinner.
Just days later, Desmond then texted the minister, telling him a decision was urgent because: “We don’t want to give Marxists loads of doe [sic] for nothing!”
A text from Desmond to Jenrick on December 23 said: “We have to get the approval before January 15 otherwise [I will have to make a] payment of £45m to Tower Hamlets.”
Emails from government officials suggest Jenrick was “insistent” that the decision be made in time. A junior business minister, Nadhim Zahawi, who was trying to defend Jenrick yesterday inadvertently made things worse, when he appeared to suggest it was appropriate for planning issues to be raised at Tory party events.
He was asked on the BBC’s Today programme what a Tory voter in Doncaster or Ashfield might think about Desmond’s ability to directly lobby the minister making the planning decision. Zahawi said they could consider doing the same thing:“Well, if people go to a fundraiser in their local area, in Doncaster, for the Conservative party, they’ll be sitting next to MPs and other people in their local area, and can interact with different parts of the authority,” he said.
“The important thing is the access didn’t buy this billionaire a decision.”
A No10 spokesperson said: “The housing secretary has set out his account in public and in parliament, including publishing the relevant documentation. In light of this account the Prime Minister considers this matter closed.”
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner tweeted: “Here we go again the untouchables – the old boys network covering for each other.”
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