London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 16, 2025

Boris Johnson declares £1,800 Heathrow hospitality amid Spanish holiday row

Boris Johnson declares £1,800 Heathrow hospitality amid Spanish holiday row

Prime minister has not had to formally declare his stay at Zac Goldsmith’s luxury villa in Marbella last month
Another detail of Boris Johnson’s largely-free holiday to southern Spain last month has emerged after the prime minister declared £1,800 of hospitality from Heathrow.

The declaration was made in the latest update to the register of MPs’ interests, where donations or other gifts must be set out, with their value. Johnson used the Windsor suite at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 on 7 October, when he was en route to Málaga.

The Windsor suite is described by the airport as a collection of eight “unique and beautifully decorated private lounges”. Johnson declared its use for three people, with a total value of £1,800.

While Johnson was previously a vehement opponent of Heathrow’s expansion to a third runway – he once pledged to stop it by lying down in front of bulldozers – he opted to travel to Kabul so as to miss a Commons vote that approved the plan in 2018, when he was foreign secretary under Theresa May.

Johnson, after being elected for his Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat, which is close to the west London airport, told supporters: “I will lie down with you in front of those bulldozers and stop the building, stop the construction of that third runway.”

Downing Street say Johnson, his wife, Carrie, and their one-year-old son, Wilfred, took a commercial flight to Spain. Once there, they stayed for free at a luxurious villa in Marbella belonging to the Goldsmith family.

While the villa is rented commercially for about £25,000 a week, this use of the villa was not put in the register of MPs’ interests, meaning Johnson has not had to formally declare its value.

Downing Street has confirmed the holiday was provided free of charge by the family of Zac Goldsmith, the former Conservative MP who, after he lost his seat in the 2019 election, was made a peer and an environment minister by Johnson.

The stay was instead listed by the prime minister in the register of ministerial interests, which is updated less regularly, and does not cite monetary values. Downing Street said this was the correct way to register the free stay, “given the hospitality was provided by another minister”.

However, there is speculation that Johnson is seeking to set a precedent that costs and obligations incurred as prime minister fall under the remit of Lord Geidt, the adviser on ministerial interests, who does not have the power to unilaterally begin investigations, rather than Kathryn Stone, the independent parliamentary commissioner for standards.

Last week, Downing Street also argued that Stone should not investigate who paid for the renovation of Johnson’s official flat, as this was not connected to his role as an MP, prompting Labour to warn the PM was trying to evade proper scrutiny.

As a minister, Johnson’s opportunity to earn extra income is severely limited. When he was a backbench MP, he was paid almost £23,000 a month by the Daily Telegraph to write a column, and regularly took on speaking engagements paying tens of thousands of pounds.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Yachts, Private Jets, and a Picasso Painting: Exposed as 'One of the Largest Frauds in History'
Australia’s Wedgetail Spies Aid NATO Response as Russian MiGs Breach Estonian Airspace
McGowan Urges Chalmers to Cut Spending Over Tax Hike to Close $20 Billion Budget Gap
Victoria Orders Review of Transgender Prison Placement Amid Safety Concerns for Female Inmates
U.S. Treasury Mobilises New $20 Billion Debt Facility to Stabilise Argentina
French Business Leaders Decry Budget as Macron’s Pro-Enterprise Promise Undermined
Trump Claims Modi Pledged India Would End Russian Oil Imports Amid U.S. Tariff Pressure
Surging AI Startup Valuations Fuel Bubble Concerns Among Top Investors
Australian Punter Archie Wilson Tears Up During Nebraska Press Conference, Sparking Conversation on Male Vulnerability
Australia Confirms U.S. Access to Upgraded Submarine Shipyard Under AUKUS Deal
“Firepower” Promised for Ukraine as NATO Ministers Meet — But U.S. Tomahawks Remain Undecided
Brands Confront New Dilemma as Extremists Adopt Fashion Labels
The Sydney Sweeney and Jeans Storm: “The Outcome Surpassed Our Wildest Dreams”
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
Bessent Accuses China of Dragging Down Global Economy Amid New Trade Curbs
U.S. Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals Who ‘Celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
×