Kwasi Kwarteng tells fake firm he could help arrange meeting with ‘great guy’ Boris Johnson
Kwasi Kwarteng told a fake South Korean firm set up by campaign group Led by Donkeys that he might be able to set up a meeting with “great guy” Boris Johnson.
The former chancellor and ex-health secretary Matt Hancock were by both drawn in by the ruse and were caught on camera offering to work for the firm for thousands of pounds per day.
Mr Kwarteng told the fake company that he would be able to put them in touch with other MPs, and suggested he could arrange a potential meeting with former prime minister Boris Johnson.
He said: “Let’s talk. I’m sure we could try and arrange that. I’m not promising anything, but he’s someone I know. He’s a great guy.”
Mr Kwarteng added that Mr Johnson – who is currently embroiled in the Partygate scandal – is the “best campaigner you will ever see”.
The former chancellor went on to suggest he could “work with” the firm’s offer of paying him between £8,000 and £12,000 for each of the six annual meetings of its non-existent international advisory board.
Mr Kwarteng added that the Tory whips would allow him to attend board meetings for a foreign company. Asked about attending board meetings, he said: “I could do that. I’m very flexible.”
He said: “We have whips … but I can work with them to make sure that – as long as the meetings aren’t like a whole week, I’m sure I can make that work.”
Asked if he could also attend one-off meetings, he said: “I should be. I think you seem extremely professional and I would be very interested to see what you had to offer in this regard.”
“I have a broad experience of business and finance … I would say of my generation in the UK there are very few people who have had the breadth of experience that I’ve had across business and politics at the highest level, probably only two or three people.”
Mr Hancock, when asked whether he had a daily rate during an online “interview”, said: “I do, yes. It is 10,000 sterling.”
Led By Donkeys said it created a company called Hanseong Consulting, setting up a website which included made-up testimonials and paying for a so-called “fake virtual office” in the South Korean capital Seoul.
It said, after consulting the register of interests, that it approached 20 MPs from different parties asking if they would join the phoney firm’s international advisory board.
According to its preview video posted on social media, campaigners said 16 of the MPs contacted were Tory, two Labour, one a Liberal Democrat and the other an independent.
Five of those were said to have progressed to an online interview stage, including Mr Hancock, Mr Kwarteng, former defence secretary Sir Gavin Williamson, former minister Stephen Hammond and Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the Tories’ 1922 Committee.
There is no accusation of wrongdoing, with MPs permitted to seek employment outside of parliament, but Rishi Sunak faced calls to suspend those caught out by the sting.
