Downing Street has refused to reveal how much Boris Johnson’s luxury free holiday to Marbella cost.
Number 10 insisted the family trip to the rumoured £25,000-a-week villa had been declared in the correct way.
Johnson was pictured last month painting at Tory peer and minister Zac Goldsmith’s home in the hills above the Costa del Sol.
However, Downing Street confirmed that the prime minister will not outline the cost of the break on the Commons register of interests.
Johnson has made a ministerial declaration, but unlike the Commons register, it does not give a cost estimate.
A spokesman for the PM said: “Earlier this year, the prime minister received hospitality from a longstanding friend who provided use of their holiday home.
“The prime minister’s met the transparency requirements in relation to this, he declared this arrangement in his ministerial capacity, given this was hospitality provided by another minister.”
The spokesman said the PM’s ministerial standards adviser Lord Geidt had scrutinised the declaration as part of the process.
But he declined to answer when asked how much the holiday was worth.
Pressed on why the PM’s Marbella holiday did not need to be declared on the register of members’ interests, he added: “The ministerial code declarations fall outside the remit of the House of Commons register.
“And as I say, in line with transparency requirements the PM has declared this arrangement in his ministerial capacity.”