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Boris Johnson under fire for waiving £6,000 fee for hard Brexit event at Foreign Office

Boris Johnson is under fire for allowing a pro Brexit think tank to host an event at the Foreign Office for free: Getty
Boris Johnson is under fire for allowing a pro Brexit think tank to host an event at the Foreign Office for free: Getty

Boris Johnson is facing questions over the decision to waive the £6,000 fee for hosting the launch event of a hard-Brexit think tank at the Foreign Office.

The Foreign Secretary told Parliament on Tuesday that the launch event for the Institute for Free Trade (IFT) - which is run by Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan, a prominent Brexiteer - was held as "no cost to the public purse" in one of the Government's most prestigious venues.

Yet internal government emails, obtained by Greenpeace, revealed that Mr Johnson allowed the think tank to use an FCO suite for free for the event in September, which meant waiving the £6,000 commercial fee to hire the venue.

It also emerged that Sue Gray, the government's head of ethics, raised concerns two days after the event and said the IFT should pay "the full commercial rate" for using the Map Room, which, as state property, should only be used for official government business.

Despite her concerns, the Foreign Office did not subsequently ask the IFT to pay for the room, although the think tank did pay for security and refreshments at the event, which was also attended by fellow Brexiteers International Trade Secretary Liam Fox and Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary.

Critics have accused Mr Johnson of breaching the ministerial code by using Government resources for a political event, where he gave a speech calling for a Singapore-style economy after Brexit.

However Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood said the event was "handled in line with longstanding policy" and there had been no breach of the Civil Service, special advisers or ministerial codes.

In a letter to Labour MP Chuka Umunna, seen by The Independent, the head of the civil service said: "Official involvement in organising the event was limited to basic logistical support. IFT covered all expenditure arising from the event.

"Given that the event supported the Government's objectives on free trade, IFT was not charged for its use of the FCO rooms."

The Foreign Office has changed its policy on charging organisations to use its rooms since the event, which moves it in line with other Whitehall departments, Sir Jeremy said.

He added: "The FCO also considered whether to charge IFT a booking fee retrospectively.

"However, as the approach to charging for the event was within the scope of the FCO room booking rules at the time, they decided that it would not be appropriate to do so."

Mr Umunna, a supporter of the Open Britain campaign, said it was "frankly unacceptable" that an "overtly political" event had been hosted at the Foreign Office without charge.

He said: "The ideologues running the IFT shouldn’t be given freebies by the Government.

“The Foreign Secretary is trying to make light of this. But pandering to fanatical hard Brexit-supporting ideologues in this way is no laughing matter.”

His concern was echoed by Labour MP Chris Bryant, who pressed Mr Johnson on the issue in Parliament on Tuesday.

Mr Bryant said: "He (Mr Johnson) pretended that he had been completely exonerated, but in fact the Cabinet Secretary has made it clear that the Foreign Office should have charged the IFT for the use of the Map Room in line with the practice across the rest of government.

"The truth is this was a private party going on free of charge on Government premises, using civil service staff and sanctioned by the Foreign Secretary.

"The IFT may seem like a fringe group of wacky fanatics, but the reality is they are highly influential and are pushing a dangerous agenda."

Doug Parr, policy director at Greenpeace, said: "It looks like Boris Johnson and Liam Fox pulled out all the stops to help launch a new pressure group that wants to weaken precious British standards around food, animal welfare and the environment - the very areas Gove and May claim will be protected when we leave the EU.

"The IFT advocates the hardest of Brexits to secure a trade deal with Trump's America and now we know the British people helped pay for their coming out party."

An FCO spokesperson said: “The Cabinet Secretary has made clear he does not believe the event or its organisation raises any issues with the Ministerial Code, the Special Advisers’ Code, or the Civil Service Code.”