Wildlife charity linked to Carrie Johnson probed over £50k interior design bill

04 February 2023 , 20:04

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The Charity Commission is investigating Howietts Wild Animal Trust, which has been linked to Carrie Johnson (Image: Chris Jackson/Pool/REX/Shutterstock)

Carrie Johnson’s boss faces a new scandal after a wildlife charity paid £50,000 to his wife’s interior design firm.

Victoria Aspinall or her firm received £352,658 over a four-year period from two charities.

The £50,000 from Howletts Wild Animal Trust (HWAT) was in 2021 – the year the Charity Commission began a probe into “related party transactions”. The trust is headed by Damian Aspinall, 62, who also chairs the Aspinall Foundation (AF) – where ex-PM Boris Johnson’s wife Carrie, 34, is communications director.

AF’s affairs are also being investigated by the Charity Commission. In late 2021 it emerged it paid Victoria, 36, £150,158 for “interior design services” in 2020.

And Victoria’s firm was also paid a further £90,000 by AF in 2021.

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Charity chairman Damian Aspinall and Victoria (Getty Images Europe)

HWAT runs Howletts and Port Lympne – sister wildlife parks in Kent. Of its £50,000 payment in 2021, accounts filed with Companies House state: “Interior design services were provided by Victoria Aspinall Limited, a company of which Mrs V Aspinall, the wife of JDA Aspinall, is a director.

“The value of these services in the year were £50,000.”

Other sums, paid by AF in 2018 and 2019, take the combined total to over £350,000.

Boris Johnson and his family were spotted at Howletts Wild Animal Park in October last year (Jenny Wingrove / SWNS)

Victoria, a former strategist for fashion house Burberry, oversees design and branding at Howletts and Port Lympne, with a focus on glamping and safari lodges.

She said in a 2021 interview: “We have built five romantic shepherd’s huts at Leopard Creek [Port Lympne] with wood burners, en suite bathrooms and kitchenettes. I wanted to inject a sense of playfulness.”

Carrie Johnson – who has two children with former PM Boris – joined AF in January 2021.

Animals at Livingstone Lodge (PA)

She and Boris, 58, were spotted on a family trip to Howletts, near Canterbury, last October, the month after he left Downing Street.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Carrie Johnson.

In its 2020 accounts, AF said fees paid to Victoria were “subject to a rigorous benchmarking exercise to ensure... value for money”.

HWAT, AF and Victoria Aspinall were approached for comment.

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