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Inquiry launched into Boris deputy claims

03/07/2008

An independent inquiry has been launched into allegations surfacing against the man mayor of London Boris Johnson appointed as his deputy.

The allegations concern Ray Lewis' past and revolve around sexual and financial misconduct.

Mr Johnson called a press conference on Thursday afternoon to defend the record of Mr Lewis.

"The reason we're holding this press conference is because you [the media] have been piling in asking all sorts of questions about his past," Mr Johnson said.

Mr Lewis has called the allegations, which have come from several different sources, as a "smear campaign".

At least some of the allegations involve the borrowing of money when he was working in the Church. At the press conference, Mr Lewis was told he had been put on the 'Lambeth List' – a register of individuals banned from working in the Church - but he refused to confirm the statement.

"The Church does not usually tell us things like this without checking its facts," a journalist responded.

Mr Lewis said he left the prison service to set up his charity and denied Newham council had stopped funding his academy.

He also totally rejected claims of an "abusive regime" within his academy.

At the City Hall press conference Mr Lewis said working with Mr Johnson has been the greatest honour of his life.

Mr Lewis is important to the mayor because he is at the centre of Mr Johnson's efforts to reduce street crime.

The controversy will be extremely uncomfortable for other reasons too. Mr Johnson has heaped considerable praise on his deputy as a paradigm example of how to turn around the lives of disadvantaged urban communities.

Mr Lewis' solution was a military-style boxing club where young boys could learn discipline.

The development follows several weeks of bad headlines for the mayor. His deputy chief of staff James McGrath was forced to resign weeks ago for saying Caribbean people should go home if they were unhappy with Mr Johnson's election.

The new mayor also found himself in trouble for being unable to answer questions on what he would replace the soon-to-be-scrapped 'bendy buses' with on certain routes.

But today's announcement is by far the most damaging, primarily because of the echoes it has of Lee Japser, former mayor Ken Livingstone's equality advisor. Mr Livingstone had to launch a similar inquiry after various sexual and financial allegations were brought under the spotlight.