The government’s claim that it properly verified the basis of a £100,000 grant to a company founded by a friend of Boris Johnson appears to be unravelling amid continuing questions about the prime minister’s role.

After a minister said that necessary checks on the firm to ensure it was UK-based involved verifying it had “a British phone number”, the Guardian called the number and got through to a US-based member of staff who would not confirm her exact location.

The development came after opposition MPs raised questions in the Commons about how a grant aimed at fostering UK talent in cyber-skills was awarded this year to a company run by Jennifer Arcuri, a US technology entrepreneur and friend of Johnson’s who is now based in California, despite appearing to fail to meet government criteria.

The new digital minister, Matt Warman, insisted that his department had done the “usual due diligence” on the company, Hacker House, but confirmed a review into how the money had been granted.

Warman said: “This is a company that is based in Britain as far as Companies House is concerned. It is a company with a British phone number. We will review that, but we have no reason to think that there is anything untoward in this particular matter.”

Facing Johnson later on in the Commons, Jeremy Corbyn demanded to know whether the prime minister had initiated the review of the award, whether he would co-operate with it and whether he would refer himself to the cabinet secretary, Mark Sedwill, for investigation.



Johnson did not address the Labour leader’s questions, and replied: “I am very proud of everything I did as mayor.”

When the Guardian called Hacker House’s UK number it got through to a recorded message with a US accent that said: “Thank you for calling Hacker House, the receptionist will be right with you.”

A woman with a US accent then answered the call, but would not give her location other than saying that it was somewhere in the US. She added: “I don’t have a specific location information to provide. I’m in an offsite location. I’m not allowed to release that type of information. I’m in the United States.”

It has also emerged that in 2016 Arcuri admitted that Hacker House employed the hacker Lauri Love, who is wanted by the US authorities for breaking into US websites.

She told Love’s extradition hearing in 2016 that she met him the previous year and at the time he worked for Hacker House from Thursday to Monday.

Arcuri’s husband, Matthew Hickey, claimed on Twitter that the company employed several “several British people”.

Hacker Fantastic (@hackerfantastic) It was awarded for development of our portal (which is up and running, maybe that should be news?). We employe several British people who work on it. There's nothing improper about it and we have been regularly updating DCMS and working with UK government on its needs.

According to LinkedIn, only four of the 11 employees recorded on the site are located in the UK, and one of them is Arcuri, who moved to the US last year.

In the House of Commons, Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, said: “The truth is our prime minister does reckless things. He is a man whose character renders him unfit for the office he holds.”

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Johnson is under increasing pressure to explain his friendship with Arcuri, whose east London flat was reportedly visited frequently by the prime minister while he was in City Hall. She also attended three overseas trade missions led by Johnson and was given tens of thousands of pounds in City Hall funds during his time as mayor.

The Sunday Times, which broke the story, said it had found the registered address on the grant application form was a rented house in the UK and no longer connected to her.

The Lib Dem MP Layla Moran tabled an urgent question asking why Hacker House received the grant this year and whether Johnson was involved in the award of the grant.

Referring to his proroguing of parliament having been found to be unlawful, she said: “The fact that we are back in the Commons today is because the prime minister has been shown to ride roughshod over the laws of this land. It would indeed be disappointing if we were to find that the prime minister has form in bending the rules for personal or political gain.”

She also pointed out that the £100,000 grant exceeded 50% of the company’s income and thus broke one of the criteria for the scheme. She asked: “Why did officials waive the rule that the grant could not exceed 50% of the company’s collective income?”

Warman said neither the prime minister nor any MP had lobbied for the money, but that the department had launched a review of the process.

“The prime minister and his staff had no role in the awarding of this grant,” he said.

Arcuri’s company Innotech was given £10,000 in sponsorship from a mayoral organisation in 2013, the Sunday Times reported. Johnson was also the guest speaker at several of its events, and appeared in a Google hangout alongside Arcuri.

“I’m always happy to hang out at Innotech,” the then mayor told Arcuri in 2014.

A year later Arcuri won a £15,000 grant under a government programme to encourage foreign entrepreneurs in the UK, the Sunday Times report alleged.

The newspaper suggested that Arcuri was initially refused permission to attend two of the trade trips because her business did not meet the eligibility criteria. But after an intervention by Johnson, she was allowed on to the missions, according to an email seen by the paper.

The Guardian disclosed that in 2014 Arcuri’s company hosted a “tech v brains” summit in parliament that was booked by the Tory MP George Freeman, who backed Johnson in the Conservative leadership race and serves as a minister in his government.

Freeman and Arcuri took part in a panel discussion at the event with entrepreneurs and policymakers about “the digital revolution”. Pictures show guests enjoying drinks and paté, tofu and mini chicken poppadom canapés at the event. Commercial rates for a half-day event in the terrace pavilion are £3,000.

Len Duvall, the chair of the Greater London assembly oversight committee, has written to Johnson requesting details and a timeline of all contact with Arcuri during his time in office, demanding a response within a fortnight.

Johnson’s successor as mayor, Sadiq Khan, has ordered an inquiry into the alleged conflict of interest, asking the London fire brigade general counsel, Kathryn Robinson, to report back on the issue.