LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd March, 2021) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is trying to set up a charity to help pay for the costs of the refurbishment works carried out at the official apartment he shares with his fiancée, Carry Symonds, and their baby son in Downing Street, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The paper claimed that Johnson has asked entrepreneur and philanthropist David Brownlow, who is also a member of the House of Lords for the ruling Conservative Party, to run the new charitable fund.
Johnson has complained the cost of the refurbishment by Symonds was 'totally out of control', the Daily Mail said, adding that the prime minister has once said that the sum amounted to over 100,000 Pounds ($139,000).
The new charity would raise money not only for maintaining the apartment where the prime minister and his family live in, but also other parts of the official residence in Downing Street, so it could be presented as having a heritage purpose.
It is reported that the scheme is inspired by the one used in the White House, where refurbishment works and the interior design customarily carried out by the US president's wife are paid by contributions made by private donors.
Reacting to the Daily Mail report, a government spokesman said that refurbishment and maintenance at Downing Street are made periodically under successive administrations, but declined to confirm Johnson's worries about costs or his intentions to set up a charitable fund.
