Fiona Govan
BRITISH Prime Minister has revealed that his recent stay at a villa in Benahavis, inland from Spain’s Costa del Sol, was a gift from a Tory peer.
Boris Johnson paid nothing to stay at the Torre Tramores estate which usually commands a nightly price tag of £25,000.
The house belongs to Zac Goldsmith, the former MP for Richmond Park who was given a peerage and elevated to the House of Lords after he lost his seat in a shock defeat in the 2019 general election.
The generous gift was declared in the latest list of ministerial interests.
Johnson’s week-long stay in the villa with pregnant wife Carrie and their son Wilfred caused controversy as he jetted off to Spain in the middle of a fuel crisis.
However, government figures defended his right to take a holiday, with Security Minister Damian Hinds insisting it was ‘important for the whole country’ that its political leader has time to switch off.
In the latest register, released on Thursday, the declaration read: “The Prime Minister has a longstanding personal friendship with the Goldsmith family and, in that capacity, in October 2021, stayed in a holiday home in southern Spain which was provided free of charge by the Goldsmiths.
“Given Lord Goldsmith is a Minister of the Crown, the arrangement has accordingly been declared.”
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