Boris Johnson’s trip to see troops in Iraq last year left Foreign Office officials picking up his personal bar bill, arranging his last-minute requests for sightseeing, and blocking his attempts to visit the “front line”, according to diplomatic emails.

The correspondence, published under freedom of information laws, shows officials struggling to accommodate the mayor’s demands and discussing efforts by Number 10 and other Whitehall officials to restrict his plans.

At the end of the visit in January 2015, the Foreign Office had to chase City Hall for payment over “costs related to alcohol purchases” run up by the mayoral delegation, even though his office was told that these would have to be settled in cash before he left.

Asked about the size of the bill, a spokesperson for the mayor said: “The mayor had always intended to settle what was a private drinks bill but an administrative oversight meant that the bill was not settled on his departure. The FCO brought this to the attention of the mayor’s office soon afterwards and the mayor personally paid the bill immediately.”

Boris Johnson visits British troops training Peshmerga fighters in Iraq | Daily Mail Online https://t.co/eR6LVOGkJN — Ercüment Kıtay (@kitay_e) November 15, 2015

British consulate officials organising the trip wrote of having just over three weeks to organise Johnson’s visit, which one claimed was “cooked up” by Nadhim Zahawi, a Tory MP of Kurdish heritage. Zahawi, the MP for Stratford-on-Avon, has since taken a job as chief strategy officer with Kurdistan oil explorer Gulf Keystone Petroleum, which pays an annual salary of £240,000.

In one email, an FCO official reveals No 10 initially tried to block Johnson from visiting British troops training local forces in Kurdistan. Downing Street subsequently relented as long as the trip was “done in an appropriately sombre manner”.



When Johnson arrived for the visit, he demanded access to the “frontline”, rather than just a training camp for local Peshmerga forces, prompting the UK official organising the visit to write an urgent email to the Foreign Office asking permission to refuse the request.



Angus McKee, the consul general in northern Iraq, wrote: “The visiting mayor would like to visit the ‘frontline’. I explained this was not possible, we never went, etc. He is not satisfied. Can you confirm there is no viable trip to the frontline in the proximity of Erbil? And that Edward Oakden [then a Foreign Office director] has zero appetite for signing off [an agreement] that gets the mayor to the front.”

The message came back from the Foreign Office that it was safe to assume there was indeed “zero appetite”. The office of Philip Hammond also declined a request to provide a supportive quote for a press release about the mayor’s visit, saying that the foreign secretary did not feel the need to contribute a comment.

Johnson’s accommodation and security was provided by the Foreign Office, while the Kurdistan regional government paid for his flights on a private plane.

The emails also reveal Johnson specifically asked to set aside time for sightseeing, which his office said was not sufficient in the programme arranged by the consulate.



Before he arrived, a member of Johnson’s office emailed the consulate to say: “I’ve been told the mayor wants to spend more time in the Citadel [of Erbil]. Could it be organised for him to spend more time there or other places of historic interest pre/after lunch?”

A Kurdish fighter guards Iraqi refugees at a camp in Erbil.

Photograph: Abdullah Zaheeruddin/Getty Images

During the trip, there were emails between diplomatic staff trying to accommodate a last-minute visit to a refugee camp. After Johnson decided he wanted to go to the camp, diplomatic staff wrote a note to London saying that they had no objection but were seeking guidance from the government “as there has been some politics between No 10, the MoD and the mayor’s office about what he can and cannot do here”.

A further email was then sent saying: “I can’t see how we could pull it even if we wanted to as he is on his way.”

After the visit, officials recounted an incident, partially reported in the Mail on Sunday, during which Johnson was invited to sit in an F-Type Jaguar in a car showroom in Erbil before hitting the gas.

“While it is true that the mayor got behind the wheel in the showroom, drove out of the door, and on to the driveway, quick action by his PPO and me ensured he did NOT drive off,” wrote one in an email to the Foreign Office in London and the British embassy in Baghdad.

Johnson was accompanied on his trip by a Sun journalist and photographs of him posing on the ground with a gun were widely reported.



The trip was at the time interpreted as an attempt to burnish his credentials as an international statesman and possible Conservative leadership contender, especially if David Cameron had lost the election and had had to step down.

It was officially justified as being part of the UK’s “prosperity agenda”, with Johnson encouraging trade ties between the two countries.

However, the mayor has been criticised by political opponents for taking too many trips abroad and political engagements, with Len Duvall, the Labour leader in the London assembly last year claiming that “Boris has mentally checked out of City Hall”.

His office said Johnson’s visits were often at the invitation of relevant governments or city leaders and were supported by the UK government, with focus “on driving investment for London and for British business and have delivered substantial results for London and for UK plc”.