Tory London Mayor Boris Johnson accused of lying

Boris Johnson was today accused of lying to the culture secretary, Ben Bradshaw, in an attempt to install a close former media ally as the head of Arts Council London.

Labour London assembly member John Biggs said a letter sent by Johnson to Bradshaw asking that Veronica Wadley, a former editor of the London Evening Standard, be made chair of the body had been misleading in claiming that Wadley had received Johnson's nomination "following a two-stage interview process" and failing to mention that Wadley had been rejected at the first stage.

Biggs quoted from a letter to Bradshaw's department from Liz Forgan, the chair of Arts Council England, who was a member of the initial interview panel for the London job.

In it, Forgan wrote that in her view Wadley had "almost no arts credibility" and reported that a fellow panellist Sir David Durie had felt she did not meet the required standard.

She added that despite the third panellist, Johnson's culture adviser Munira Mirza, arguing strongly that Wadley should go through to the second interview, which was conducted by Johnson himself and a senior City Hall official, she was "left with the impression" that the mayor would see only "the three appointable candidates," who did not include Wadley.

Forgan also wrote that the appointment process was supposed to ensure that "the appointment would be made to standards of probity equivalent to Nolan", a reference to anti-sleaze rules drawn up in 2001 to ensure probity in public life.

Wadley, a personal friend of Johnson, was at the helm of the Standard during last year's mayoral election campaign, when it mounted a relentless campaign against Johnson's main rival, Ken Livingstone, concentrating on allegations of cronyism. She left the job after a change of ownership earlier this year.

Biggs, speaking at the mayor's monthly question time session this morning, declined to withdraw the accusation of lying, which Johnson dismissed as "complete nonsense".

He defended the procedure, insisting that it was robust. City Hall later dismissed the "lying" claim as "infantile".

Biggs had raised the matter because it had not been included in the mayor's written report of his activities since the previous question time.

He was challenged by Conservative assembly member Brian Coleman about alleging the mayor had lied on the grounds that it breached assembly convention and invited by the assembly chair, Green party assembly member Darren Johnson, to "reflect on those comments".

However, Biggs replied, "I've reflected long and hard. I mean, he [Johnson] makes a statement about a process of appointment and it's fairly clear from the record that, inadvertently or otherwise, there is a lie in his letter when he claims that the candidate was chosen from a strong field of candidates following a two-stage interview process.

"What he doesn't say [in the letter] is that the candidate was rejected at the first-stage interview and then recommended for appointment. That is clearly a misrepresentation, which I would call a lie."

When it was suggested that Johnson could sue, Biggs added: "For the record ... he has threatened to sue me before so perhaps he'll do it again."