With a new fiasco underway, Boris Johnson is facing damaging new revelations about his relationship with US businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri after hundreds of pages of notes and documents were handed over to officials overseeing two separate investigations into their affair at the Greater London Authority (GLA).

Last month, the GLA oversight committee summoned and received a large number of documents from a London tourism and promotional agency, including emails to and from Arcuri, as part of an investigation into whether Johnson abused his position as London mayor to "benefit and reward" the businesswoman.

Arcuri was granted access to foreign trade missions led by the future prime minister, as well as sponsorship for her events company, raising concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

She is also said to be fully cooperating with a separate investigation by the GLA's ethics watchdog, raising the prospect of Johnson facing criminal charges for misconduct in public office.

According to City Hall sources, Arcuri was "currently in dialogue" with the GLA monitoring officer and is said to have offered hundreds of new pages of notes and text messages detailing her affair with Johnson while he was mayor of London.

A GLA spokesperson confirmed that the officer was "continuing to gather information in order to assess the complaint" about Johnson's dealings with Arcuri and would report "in due course."

The beginning of investigations 

Last year, The Observer reported that Johnson had allegedly ignored staff advice to promote Arcuri's business interests and win her affections. The GLA reopened its investigation after receiving contemporaneous diary excerpts from Arcuri, which she passed on to journalist John Ware.

Previously, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) decided not to open a criminal investigation into Johnson's business relationship with the then-27-year-old Arcuri.

That investigation, however, did not have access to Arcuri's handwritten diary entries, in which the Californian entrepreneur made "verbatim" notes about her relationship with Johnson.

Her previously unknown evidence could be even more crucial because the original IOPC investigation was hampered by the deletion of key email and phone records at City Hall, which prevented the watchdog from "reviewing relevant evidence."

Arcuri's continued cooperation with the GLA monitoring officer paves the way for a possible referral to the IOPC to launch an investigation into public office misconduct, which Johnson has denied.

Meanwhile, the GLA oversight committee has requested and received unredacted documents from London & Partners (L&P), the tourism and promotional agency that organized the foreign trade trips led by Johnson on which Arcuri was given places.

What is the investigation focused on?

The investigation is focused on “the payment of sponsorship monies and the access afforded to those who participated in mayoral trade missions”.

Arcuri received £126,000 in public funds in the form of grants for her technology business and event sponsorship, as well as access to three Johnson-led foreign trade missions.

Arcuri has stated that the grants and access to L&P trips she received between 2013 and 2014 had nothing to do with her relationship with the mayor. Johnson did not mention Arcuri in his declaration of candidacy for mayor, but he has denied any wrongdoing.

"We asked for unredacted copies of these documents because we need to know the full details of the evidence for our investigation into overseas visits and sponsorship monies," said Caroline Pidgeon, chair of the GLA oversight committee. 

“We need clarification around the specific people involved to ensure our investigation is complete.” When the investigation is finished, the committee will issue a report and a set of recommendations.

According to a government spokesperson, "as mayor, Boris Johnson followed all the legal requirements in the Greater London Assembly's [sic] code of conduct at the time."

Not the only scandal 

This is not the first time Johnson gets caught in a scandal. Earlier, members of Johnson's own conservative party have called on Johnson to resign if he was found to be in attendance at the party in question.

Calls for Boris Johnson to resign have been reported after a leaked email surfaced on Tuesday in which Johnson's principal private secretary Martin Reynolds invited more than 100 colleagues to "socially distanced drinks in the No. 10 garden," during the first lockdown in England.

Johnson said millions of Britons had made "extraordinary sacrifices" during the first Covid lockdown in 2020 and while the celebration seemed to be a business function, he expressed "heartfelt apologies."

However, in response to calls for him to resign, the British government has used intimidation and attempted to blackmail lawmakers that made the resignation calls.