The UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is struggling to fight off another allegation that he abused his office when he was the Mayor of London.
Johnson has been accused of lobbying to get a job for a woman with whom he had a sexual relationship at the time.
According to the Sunday Times report, Johnson secured a job interview for the unidentified woman at City Hall.
A senior figure in City Hall, Kit Malthouse, who is now one of Mr. Johnson’s cabinet Ministers, blocked the appointment, citing the pair’s unusually close relationship.
Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson’s power snooze
An audio recording shared on Twitter by The Times editor Gabriel Pogrund, Mr. Johnson, who at the time was the Foreign Secretary in 2017, was heard admitting to pushing her forward for a job.
According to the audio by the Sunday Times, the conversation happened in November 2017 between Mr. Johnson and the woman.
The woman is heard narrating how she felt uncomfortable about their relationship in 2008 when Mr. Johnson was still married with four children.
The woman, a graduate in her twenties, told him that her case was an example of how a young woman who “steps into this building is a fair game” to be leered at by powerful men.
She asked Boris Johnson if she recalled her recounts, and Mr. Johnson said “yes.”
Mr Johnson then replied, “I am very, very sorry, your unhappiness about this. And I feel, obviously, that I’ve been very insensitive. There’s absolutely no question about that.”
“Can I just say something? I did suggest you for a role, and I was very disappointed when you didn’t get that role… I suggested you for the job, and I was very keen for Kit to interview you; and I remember Kit interviewed you.
“I asked him about it afterward, repeatedly, why he hadn’t given you the job, and I was very disappointed he hadn’t. I remember.
“I’m afraid one of the reasons that he gave was that he thought you were too friendly with me.” He added that it was not possible to “just machine friends into jobs. You can’t. Not in City Hall”.
This isn’t the first time a report of Mr. Johnson’s sexual favours surfaced. Last month, it was reported that he also pushed his now wife, Carrie Johnson, to become his Chief of staff when he was a foreign secretary.
When Mr. Johnson was the Mayor of London, he also helped a US businesswoman, Jennifer Arcuri, gain access to Taxpayer-funded business trips. According to last month’s reports, the woman later disclosed that she had sexual relations with Mr. Johnson.
The latest allegations came when Mr. Johnson had bragged to the House of Commons that he “abhors abuse of power anywhere in parliament, in this party or in any other party.”
A Downing Street spokesman said: “This [is] not about his time as PM and [has] no public interest as I see it. And we don’t talk about his private life.”
Boris Johnson was kicked out of his house in 2018 by his then-wife, Marina Wheeler, who couldn’t take the countless infidelities from her husband.
Mr. Johnson remarried in May 2021 to one of his mistresses, Carrie Symonds.