By Dave Hill and Jenny Percival
Guardian
July 3, 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jul/03/london.boris?gusrc=rss&feed=uknews
London mayor Boris Johnson announced today that he is launching an independent inquiry into allegations of financial irregularities and inappropriate behaviour against his deputy mayor, Ray Lewis.
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| Boris Johnson and Ray Lewis at city hall today. Photo by Stefan Rousseau |
The move follows a Guardian investigation and a series of questions tabled by the newspaper yesterday and separate inquiries by Channel 4.
At a press conference at city hall, central London, today, Lewis - standing beside Johnson - dismissed the allegations as "totally unfounded" and "malicious". He described the claims as "complete rubbish" and "an attempt to smear me".
Lewis, Johnson's deputy mayor for young people, denied he had ever harassed anyone or behaved in any way which would conflict with his role as a justice of the peace and the founder of a charity.
The mayor announced that an independent investigation into the allegations would begin work tomorrow and defended his decision to appoint Lewis, saying he was "proud" that he had agreed to work with him. He maintained that the claims against Lewis had only surfaced after he had taken up his post as deputy mayor for young people and were motivated by a dislike for Lewis's work with wayward boys which he characterised as a brave stand against a "stifling orthodoxy".
The allegations were made against Lewis when he worked as a priest for the Church of England in the 90s.
The church confirmed today that Lewis had been placed on a register banning him from working as a priest in England because "things had been alleged against him".
The Rev Chris Newland, chaplain to the Bishop of Chelmsford - which covers Essex and east London - declined to detail the nature of the allegations against Lewis but said that the grounds for a ban were generally down to serious misconduct or doctrinal disagreements.
He said Lewis had been banned from working at the Church of England in 1999. Lewis left the church in 1997 to take up a post in the Windward Islands. The ban allows him to call himself a priest, but not to minister or preach. Lewis said today that he did not know he had been suspended from the church and that he had never been questioned about the allegations.
He added that the first he knew of the matter was when the Guardian tabled a series of questions on the issue yesterday.
Newland said that the church would "fully cooperate" with Johnson's investigation.
Lewis faces allegations of financial irregularities and inappropriate behaviour, although no criminal action has been taken. In one case, the allegation centred on a sum of nearly £30,000 entrusted to Lewis to invest on her behalf by a female parishioner.
But yesterday the woman, Mary Massey, issued a statement saying that although there had been problems with the investment during 1997 all the money had been returned to her, with interest, by Lewis by 2004. Massey presently works at Lewis's Eastside Young Leaders Academy in the east London borough of Newham, the "respect" centre Lewis founded and runs.
Based on a regime of strict discipline, it has been praised by some for its after-school work with black teenagers who have been in trouble or not doing well in mainstream school. The Conservative party in particular has heralded Lewis's methods as a model for the future, and a key way to help confront the recent spate of knife and gun murders in London.
EYLA's board is chaired by former MP Stephen Norris, who was the Tories' candidate for mayor in 2000 and 2004, helped Johnson's 2008 campaign and has been appointed to the boards of Transport for London and the London Development Agency by the new mayor. Francis Maude, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, is also on EYLA's board. The academy was David Cameron's first port of call following his election as Conservative leader in 2005.
Johnson has five deputy mayors, covering different areas.
This is the second major blow to Johnson's administration since he was elected mayor of London on May 1.
Last month one of his senior advisers James McGrath quit after remarking that Caribbean immigrants could always return to their places of birth if they did not like London under Johnson. The mayor insisted that James McGrath, his political adviser, was not a racist.
John Biggs, the Labour assembly member whose constituency includes Newham, said, "Boris Johnson set great store by his deputy's abilities, elevating him to almost saint-like status. So it seems remarkable that these serious questions about why Newham council withdrew its funding, why he was struck off by the church and about his past were not asked and answered before Lewis took up his post.
"Having already lost one adviser in his first six weeks, the foundations of Johnson's administration are looking increasingly shaky."
A spokesman for the Met police that that between 2003 and 2008 the force received five complaints of commons assault against Lewis and one complaint of child cruelty. All six incidents were investigated but no arrests were made and it was decided that no further action needed to be taken.
The questions
These are the questions that the Guardian emailed to the mayor's office yesterday evening, prompting today's press conference and the independent inquiry into the claims, followed by the answers.
The deputy mayor was asked:
Why was your licence to practise as a Church of England minister in the diocese of Chelmsford revoked in 1999?
Lewis said that as far as he was concerned this had never taken place and that any allegations made to the church had never been made known to him.
There appears to be a gap in your CV from when you left St Matthew's church in West Ham in 1997 to joining the prison service in 2000. What were you doing during that time?
Lewis explained that he'd left to work as a minister in the Winward Islands then returned to Britian to work for Christian Aid and Methodists Homes before joining the prison service.
Why did you leave the prison service in December 2001?
Lewis replied that he'd discovered that it simply wasn't what he wanted to do and founded EYLA instead. Asked if his departure had resulted from difficulties in his relationships with other prison staff he said he wasn't aware of it.
Newham council says it has stopped funding the Eastside Young Leaders Academy. What reasons did they give for that decision?
Lewis said he believed Newham was still funding EYLA, despite the Guardian having been told yesterday afternoon that this had stopped earlier this year. Newham later said that it had provided a small package of financial support for one child who attended the academy but that this had been stopped in the past two weeks once it came to the attention of senior social service managers because EYLA is not an approved provider of services to Newham council.
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