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Boris Johnson Apologises For Breaching Parliament's Earnings Disclosure Rules

The former UK foreign secretary was deemed to have breached parliament’s financial declaration rules by failing to disclose his supplementary earnings in time.
Sputnik

Tory MP Boris Johnson has apologised after Kathryn Stone, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, revealed that the outspoken Brexiteer had failed to disclose additional earnings in time on nine occasions over the past year.

Specifically, Johnson was late in registering £52,000 (around $65,000) of earnings from his Telegraph column and book sales.

READ MORE: Jet-Set to Jeddah: BoJo Condemns Saudis Who Paid £14,000 for His Visit

He offered parliament a “full and unreserved apology”, following Stone’s recommendation of issuing a mea culpa.

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Parliamentary rules stipulate that MPs must report additional earnings within 28 days so the inflows can be added to the register of MP’s financial interests.

Stone said it seems the delays were caused by “a lack of attention to the house’s requirements, rather than inadvertent error,” adding that he has fully cooperated to resolve the matter.

Johnson has reportedly changed his bookkeeping system to ensure the issue doesn’t persist.

His finances were in the limelight last month, after it emerged he was paid around $120,000 by a US asset management firm for giving a two-hour speech.

On top of his £77,000 (circa $100,000) annual MP salary, Johnson receives close to $360,000 for writing his column in The Daily Telegraph, in addition to book royalties and other ad hoc ventures.

READ MORE: Boris Johnson Paid Over $120k By US Asset Management Firm for Two-Hour Speech

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