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Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, The Spectators' Daily Politics Podcast. I'm Isabel

Hartman and I'm joined by James Forsyth and Katie Balls. Well, shortly before Prime

Minister's questions today, the Electoral Commission announced it would be launching a probe

into the financing of the Downing Street flat revamp.

James, what has happened?

So the electoral commissioner have said that there are reasons to be for an offence or offences may have been committed.

So they're now launching a kind of investigation into what happened.

At the moment, this appears to be an investigation into how the Conservative Party handled it.

Now, I don't mean that is the end of the matter for Boris Johnson, because however the Conservative Party handled it,

there are questions about what should have been declared in the Register of Members' interests and the register of minister's interest.

Now, we know that Christopher Geith, the Queen's former private secretary, is now coming in as a new

independent advisor on the ministerial code and that he is going to look at the flat.

Boris Johnson said at PMQ's today, in a distinctly touchy performance, to put it mildly,

that the Guyt would look at what further declarations, if any, he needed to make. I also think he said something which I think

is going to become hugely important. He said that he had officials have given him advice

throughout this process. Now, it seems to me that it would be very odd if the Electoral Commission did

not ask to see this advice, to understand what had happened. Now, I think one of the other

big consequences of the Electoral Commission is that I think that we are now surely going to

see the entire process play out, given the Electoral Commission's investigatory powers. And so the question then becomes whether number 10 maintains this

kind of current position of basically not providing any information beyond the statement that

...