Mr Said, rather than his wife Rosemary, was described as the “donor” in official Downing Street logs when the pair attended a nearly 90-minute meeting with Johnson, his chief of staff and his political secretary at Number 10 in September 2019. The meeting took place less than two months after Johnson had been elected prime minister.
The businessman, who said his wife was the donor, also had two separate phone calls with then-Prime Minister Johnson in 2020 and 2021 without his wife taking part, according to the logs.
The man in charge of raising funds for the Conservatives, then-party chairman Sir Ben Elliot, joined the 2020 phone call even though it would have been illegal for Mr Said, who was listed in the logs as being from his philanthropic Said Foundation, to donate.
Johnson placed the second call during a journey back by train from Stoke-on-Trent to London. He made two political calls during the trip, the first to a donor and the second to Mr Said.
The logs, which are recorded by civil servants and give a minute-by-minute account of Johnson’s days, covering almost all of his time in Downing Street, show no calls between Rosemary Said and the former PM.
The calls and the meeting were labelled as “political”, meaning they related to Conservative party matters, rather than government business, and did not have to be disclosed in government transparency documents.
Other “political” meetings and phone calls recorded in the logs were between Johnson and Conservative party donors, ministers, staff or advisers.
Mr Said, who is 85, said he had known Johnson since “long before he became prime minister” and that due to his age he cannot recall the telephone conversations while he was in Downing Street.
He added that it was “entirely possible that he may have called to thank me for my contribution to Covid vaccine research”.