Boris Johnson’s controversial holiday in Spain came under new scrutiny today when it emerged that the luxury £25,000-a-week estate on Costa del Sol where he’s staying is linked to a tax avoidance row.
The PM has been holidaying in fellow Tory Zac Goldsmith's lavish villa with his wife Carrie and young son Wilfred where he has been unwinding by painting in the hills above Marbella in southern Spain.
He had already faced criticism for taking a break in the midst of the fuel and empty supermarket shelf crisis engulfing Britons.
But today the trip came under fresh attention when it emerged that the property is featured in the so-called 'Pandora Papers'.
This is the name given to the notorious long-running leak of almost 12 million documents which reveal hidden wealth, tax avoidance and even money laundering by some of the world's rich and powerful.
The documents show that the estate is held by ‘an opaque offshore structure based in multiple tax havens’, says The Guardian.
This structure apparently involves the property being owned through a Maltese company which in turn is held by companies in the Turks and Caicos Islands and administered by a wealth planning firm based in Switzerland.
Boris Johnson has been holidaying in fellow Tory Zac Goldsmith's lavish villa (pictured above) with his wife Carrie and young son Wilfred where he has been unwinding by painting in the hills above Marbella in southern Spain
The Prime Minister pictured with ex-MP and member of the House of Lord Zac Goldsmith in September 2019. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Goldsmith, who was promoted to the Lords by Johnson
Mr Goldsmith, an ex-MP and now member of the House of Lords, declined to discuss the details of the arrangement but the newspaper goes on to say the fact the PM’s holiday ’at a property that appears to be held through a chain of companies in secretive jurisdictions will probably raise questions about his commitment to reforms designed to introduce transparency to offshore property ownership in the UK’.
There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Goldsmith, who was promoted to the Lords by Johnson, but the paper notes that the documents it has seen ‘raise questions about whether Goldsmith holds valuable and income-generating assets offshore.'
The PM and his family’s arrival in Andalusia at the weekend had even prompted comments in the Spanish media about his decision to go on holiday while Britain is in the grip of fuel and food shopping crises.
Spain's Canal 3 TV station reported about the British prime minister's absence live from the country estate this morning.
While Mr Johnson insists he remains working to solve Britain's growing problems, he has been seen lounging around on the terrace of the
