Boris faces probe over undeclared shares

The Evening Standard revealed that Boris Johnson, a Conservative MP, had breached Commons rules by failing to place the shareholdings on the MPs' Register of Interests.

Mr Johnson holds a third of the shares in Finland Station - a firm which makes history documentaries which he presents - but MPs are obliged by their code of conduct to register any shareholding greater than 15 per cent.

After the Standard contacted his office, Mr Johnson moved to register his interests in full and claimed the matter had been an "oversight" for which he took full responsibility. He said he had not been aware of the rules on shares.

But Labour seized on the blunder as proof that Mr Johnson's "incompetence" made him unfit to run London.

The Henley MP has put at the heart of his mayoral campaign a pledge to keep City Hall's register of interests on the internet to prove just how transparent his administration would be.

Labour MP Karen Buck today referred the breach to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards John Lyon for a full investigation.

The Regent's Park & Kensington North MP said: "This shows both hypocrisy and incompetence. Londoners can't afford to have someone who has such 'oversights' in charge of the multi-billion pound responsibilities of Mayor... Ignorance of the law is no defence at all. If he can't run his MP's office properly, how can he run London?"

Cabinet minister Peter Hain was forced to quit this year for failing to declare donations to his office in full.

Finland Station - previously known as Black Rock Productions - has so far produced two history documentaries, The Flame Of Rome and Boris And The Clash Of Civilisations, which he presented. Both were commissioned after the success of a popular history programme-Dream of Rome, which was shown by the BBC in 2006.

Companies House documents obtained by the Standard show that Mr Johnson has owned 33 per cent of the shares in the TV company since it was founded in September 2006.

On 28 January, Mr Johnson did declare in the MPs' register an unspecified income from Finland Station for the making of The Flame Of Rome but made no other reference to it.

Finland Station has yet to produce trading accounts, so it is impossible to state how much Mr Johnson's stake in the company he set up with Barnaby Spurrier and John Nicholas is worth.

This is the second time that Mr Johnson has breached the rules on his finances. Earlier this year he was reprimanded by the Electoral Commission for failing to declare correctly £45,000 in donations.

After being contacted by the Evening Standard, a spokeswoman for Mr Johnson, said: "Boris Johnson has declared a payment from Finland Station of £30,000 as writer and presenter of a documentary. This is the only income he has received from the company."

Mr Johnson's other outside interests include £250,000 per year from the Daily Telegraph, after-dinner speaking which recently made him £50,000, and book contracts worth as much as £40,000.