FCO foots Boris Johnson’s bar tab

The Foreign Office was made to pay for the mayor of London’s bar tab following his visit to Iraq last year, it has emerged.

A terse note from the department to City Hall chasing “costs related to alcohol purchases” was contained within newly published government correspondence.

The costs in question were incurred by London’s mayor Boris Johnson on his trip to Iraqi Kurdistan in January 2015, after which he apparently left Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials to cover his bar bill.

A spokesman for the mayor described the non-payment as an “administrative oversight” and added that the costs had been repaid “immediately” once the matter had been brought to City Hall’s attention.

The spokesman said: “The mayor had always intended to settle what was a private drinks bill but an administrative oversight meant that the bill was not settled on his departure. The FCO brought this to the attention of the mayor’s office soon afterwards and the mayor personally paid the bill immediately.”

The correspondence also revealed that senior ministers and Number 10 were not happy about Johnson’s Iraq trip, which was linked to his ambitions to be leader of the Conservative Party. Downing Street initially blocked the visit although the position then softened from an outright “no” to declaring a trip would be fine “as long as it’s done in an appropriately sombre manner,” a memo read.