Ride the storm
ANY Prime Minister can get blown badly off course by events outside his control.
But the sleaze scandal that has erupted over Owen Paterson’s lobbying has been an entirely and hideously self-created moment for Boris Johnson.
Boris has always been at his best when he plays to his own instinct over what people want and how they think[/caption]
Environment Secretary George Eustice yesterday haplessly pushed his own PM in front of a double decker.
Ironically, he achieved this by revealing that BoJo was personally involved in the bid to overturn Paterson’s Commons suspension because “he didn’t like throwing people under the bus”.
Eustice incredibly went on to claim that Paterson’s acceptance of £500,000 in return for asking questions in Parliament was a “minor” error of judgment.
Clearly, there are some in Cabinet who still don’t get it.
Perhaps the nauseating sight of the sex-mad lord high priest of Tory sleaze David Mellor lecturing the party will wake them from their torpor.
Or maybe the sound of Brexit-hating Sir John Major, who let his own Government fall apart amid scandal, describing the current leadership as “politically corrupt”.
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Boris has always been at his best when he plays to his own instinct over what people want and how they think.
He would do well, too, not to hang on the advice of the so-called “Spartans” cabal of right-wing MPs who did so much to help deliver Brexit but who have since repeatedly tried to push the PM towards political danger.
With Labour a woke, point-scoring shambles, the only immediate threat to a Tory government comes from the kind of epic ineptitude of the past few days.
That cannot last forever.
Boris will have to take his deserved punishment in the Commons today.
Tomorrow he must come out fighting for what matters: jobs, the economy and tackling the rising cost of living.
Our jabs MoT
COVID may at last be on the retreat but it could remain our enemy for years.
Former Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi says the Government plans to give every single one of us an annual jab for as long as it takes to beat it.
Nadhim Zahawi says the Government plans to give every single one of us an annual jab for as long as it takes to beat Covid[/caption]
Jabs are a small price to pay for long-term protection.
Getting a booster will become as familiar as giving your car an MoT so it doesn’t crash and kill you.
And you won’t be handed a whopping bill.
Crown slips
JEMIMA Khan is the latest to sound the alarm about the portrayal of Princess Diana in the next series of The Crown.
She has quit as a show adviser, believing it to be “disrespectful” towards her.
Jemima Khan is the latest to sound the alarm about the portrayal of Princess Diana in the next series of The Crown[/caption]
We wonder if Prince Harry, always rightly sensitive about his mother’s memory, shares her view.
And whether he will seek to return the £112million he is paid by Netflix.