Boris Johnson

[Sugar Ape]

Is the tide going out on Boris Johnson’s comeback? | News | The Sunday Times (thetimes.co.uk)

 

Is the tide going out on Boris Johnson’s comeback?

 

The Bafta building on London’s Piccadilly is the spiritual centre of British drama. In the past week it was also the scene of intrigue which has come to a head this weekend in the most dramatic behind-closed-doors game of political chicken since Tony Blair and Gordon Brown made their deal at the Granita restaurant in 1994.

 

It was at a party to celebrate the 200th anniversary of The Sunday Times at Bafta on Monday evening, over glasses of Taittinger champagne, that a member of Boris Johnson’s inner circle approached a prominent figure in Westminster and suggested the future of the country depended on “what Boris does next”.

 

The Johnson ally then revealed that several members of his team were urging the former prime minister to endorse Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor whose resignation brought the Johnson premiership to a crashing halt, and end the civil war that has torn the Tories apart.

 

 

“Several of us think that is the serious and sensible course of action,” the figure said. “If he thinks he can’t win, the statesmanlike thing to do would be to back Rishi and say the feud is over for the good of the country.”

 

Half an hour later another of Johnson’s closest confidants proffered the same view: “Boris has to back Rishi. That’s the way to solve this.”

 

Flash forward to today, when Johnson landed back in Britain after a holiday in the Dominican Republic. The two men were due to talk at 3.30pm, perhaps even to meet. But the conversation was delayed until 5.30pm and then further. They eventually talked after 9pm, though the outcome of their conversation was not immediately relayed by their camps. Johnson was holed up at Millbank Tower, just a few hundred metres from Parliament, where Sunak was based.

 

The future of the country hangs on what happens next. Sunak appears to be in the box seats, with more than 120 MP supporters publicly declared, well over the threshold of 100 required to get on the ballot paper. His goal is to get to about 180, half the parliamentary party, giving him a huge moral advantage he did not have last time if the decision goes to the membership.

 

Johnson’s aides said he had also cleared the 100 threshold but even this afternoon his supporters were phoning declared allies of both Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, the third candidate in the race, in an attempt to get them to switch.

 

The goal for both men, if the meeting happens, is to turn up with the biggest club possible. One of those familiar with the calculations said: “Boris will want to say: ‘I’ve got the numbers, I’ll beat you with the membership, here’s a big job.’”

 

During conversations between aides and intermediaries, a path was mapped out for Sunak to create a ladder, down which Johnson could climb. “The idea was that Rishi would show Boris some respect, bend the knee a little, apologise for bringing him down and find a way of working together.” Some speculated that Sunak might offer Johnson a return to the Foreign Office or an envoy role to Ukraine.

 

But in the past 24 hours it is understood that several senior Tory donors, who have previously backed Johnson, are telling him the time is not right for a return. Sunak, meanwhile, is understood to be growing in confidence that he can land the support of key party right-wingers. The decision of Lord Frost, Johnson’s former Brexit negotiator, was a boost to this cause.

 

In perhaps the most significant endorsement to date, Kemi Badenoch, who was fourth in the last leadership contest and is seen as a future leader, has announced that she too is backing Sunak.

 

One senior Tory said that getting the two “big beasts” together was “like getting pandas to mate”. But sources in both camps said the goal was to avoid a wounding contest.

 

After six years of chaos that may be optimistic but the opportunity for unity has arisen only because of the unprecedented turbulence of Liz Truss’s short time in office. “Don’t forget,” a minister said. “A lot of people believe that Boris only backed Liz because he thought she would implode and he could come back.”

 

If so, it might have been one of Johnson’s most prescient political judgments. What made the showdown this weekend possible was the culmination of six years of political chaos in six days of tragedy and farce, culminating on Wednesday evening in one of the most chaotic votes the Commons has ever seen.

 

The endgame began last Sunday at Chequers, the prime minister’s country retreat. That morning Truss told her team: “It’s quite serious.” Jake Berry, the party chairman, laid out plans to set up a “war room” in No 10 where key allies would fight to shore up support among MPs.

 

 

Truss had already lost faith in Wendy Morton, the chief whip, openly referred to as “Wendy Moron” by No 10 staff. “The whips were giving everyone ‘Rag ratings’,” a source said, assigning “red, amber or green” status to MPs depending on their levels of hostility. “They were flagging people as amber if they were a just bit grumpy. Being annoyed about a piece of legislation is not the same as wanting to oust a sitting prime minister.” At this point “more than half the parliamentary party was red or amber”.

 

A No 10 source said: “It was a shitshow. Some of the prime minister’s closest supporters were on amber. They had Oliver Dowden [Rishi Sunak’s closest friend in politics] as green!”

 

If Truss did not yet accept her time in office was over, she knew last Sunday that her libertarian tax-cutting political project was dead. The message was delivered, in the politest tones, by Jeremy Hunt, her new chancellor, in a one-on-one meeting at Chequers, who laid out how much of her mini-budget he would have to junk.

 

Hunt then explained the situation to the political team. “The mood of the team was that it was not tenable,” said one of those present. “The atmospherics were of shock. It was clear that Hunt held the whip hand. He was very matter of fact but it was clear he understood how powerful he was.”

 

Together they agreed the choreography of Monday, where the chancellor would make a statement to camera in the morning to reassure the markets, then one to parliament in the afternoon. “We couldn’t wait or the markets might have been in freefall again,” a source said.

 

That afternoon, Truss addressed the One Nation group of Tory MPs for 45 minutes. Having appointed Hunt, one of their number, she was well received. There was even time for levity when the former cabinet minister Matt Hancock spoke up. “Matt said there are a lot of talented people on the backbenches who she could give jobs to,” a witness said. This was greeted with hoots of laughter and a shout of, “Who did you have in mind, Matt?”

 

But there were two pieces of grit in the oyster, which would come back to haunt Truss. Richard Graham raised concerns about Truss’s vocal support for fracking. Guy Opperman questioned why one of her aides had briefed against Sajid Javid, the former cabinet minister, describing him as “shit” in last weekend’s Sunday Times. The banging of desks from colleagues suggested anger was widespread.

 

A meeting later, with the hardline Brexiteers of the European Research Group (ERG) went well, with MPs sympathetic that she had fought for their vision of a deregulated high-growth country.

 

At 3.30pm on Tuesday, David Canzini walked into the war room in the pillared room, upstairs in No 10, and there was a spontaneous round of applause. The veteran Tory campaigner, who was a key figure in the final months of Johnson’s premiership, had been recruited by Berry and Mark Fullbrook, the No 10 chief of staff, to reinforce the war room.

 

Canzini added focus because Berry and Fullbrook drifted in and out as other tasks dictated. Help was also on hand from loyalists like Brandon Lewis, the justice secretary, and a phalanx of advisers, including Giles Dilnot and Hudson Roe, special advisers to the foreign secretary James Cleverly. Dilnot was new to government but, as a former BBC reporter and communications chief to the children’s commissioner, one of the most experienced spin doctors in Whitehall.

 

The sum of these meetings was that by Wednesday morning the war room and the whips had moved a decent number of MPs “from amber to green”. “Every day we were able to tell the prime minister that it had moved more in her direction,” said one of those involved. “She was always very positive. What brought her down was Wednesday’s shambles.”

 

Truss would face a make or break prime minister’s questions against Sir Keir Starmer that day. To ensure it was a success, Berry went into battle with Hunt and the Treasury, who had wanted to save an announcement that the government was standing by the “triple lock” to uprate state pensions until the chancellor’s fiscal announcement on October 31.

 

The party chairman had spent the night before with 25 MPs from the “Blue Barricade” group — MPs from red wall seats never held by the Conservatives — and every one of them said they would not vote to scrap the triple lock. Berry warned there was no way the legislation would get through parliament. “How come all these people who work at the Treasury don’t know how to count?” he asked. The announcement would give Truss something to trump whatever the Labour leader said at the despatch box.

 

In the PMQ prep meeting Truss was warned that Javid was planning to use the first question of the session to name Jason Stein, one of Truss’s closest aides, as the source of the briefing against him. Ruth Porter, the deputy chief of staff, did a deal with Javid that Stein would be suspended and investigated. Stein was furious and was reinstated on Friday.

 

Truss took a hammering from Starmer but was combative (quoting Peter Mandelson’s claim: “I am a fighter, not a quitter”) and the pressure from MPs appeared, momentarily, to subside.

 

The wheels began to fall off when Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, alerted Truss that Suella Braverman, the home secretary, had committed two breaches of the ministerial code. She had emailed cabinet papers from her ministerial account to her private gmail account and then on to backbench veteran Sir John Hayes, a fellow right-winger. She also copied in someone she thought was Hayes’s wife but was actually an assistant to Andrew Percy, the MP for Brigg and Goole. After taking advice from colleagues, Percy spoke to the chief whip, Wendy Morton, who referred the issue to Case.

 

Braverman was later to argue that the document was simply a written ministerial statement, that she had had a blazing row with Truss about immigration numbers (implying that was the real reason for her dismissal) and that she had sent it by mistake at 4am. It was, in fact, sent three or four hours later that morning.

 

A No 10 source was withering: “She doesn’t make any decision without consulting John Hayes,” who had been acting as an unofficial adviser, frequently seen in the Home Office, meetings which had come to the attention of Matthew Rycroft, the permanent secretary. “Concerns had been raised prior to Wednesday that Braverman might have been sharing restricted government documents with people she shouldn’t have,” a source said. Braverman agreed to resign.

 

To replace her, Truss called on Grant Shapps, the former transport secretary she unceremoniously sacked, who had spent the intervening six weeks leading the resistance against her. “There was some talk about whether we should do deals with terrorists,” said one involved in the talks, “but in the end it was decided it would be better to pick off a senior rebel”.

 

If the chaos had ended there, Truss might have lived to fight another day. But her government was undone by a clever tactic from the Labour chief whip Sir Alan Campbell. The opposition tabled a motion opposing fracking but also added a clause that would have allowed them to seize control of the parliamentary timetable to pass their own legislation — a tactic used during Brexit battles in the Commons.

 

Tory MPs were told they were on a three-line whip to vote down the plan and that the issue was a confidence motion, meaning they would be deselected if they disobeyed. However, several made clear they didn’t care about losing the whip and would not vote for fracking. Morton failed to give Downing Street a clear steer on whether they would win the vote, causing a loss of nerve. “She had no clue about the numbers,” said one source in the building. “Not a f***ing clue.”

 

Half an hour before the vote, the deputy chief whip Craig Whittaker was overheard on the phone to one of Truss’s political aides. “Let me do my f***ing job. We are going to win. The majority will be approaching 100. Stop interfering.”

 

But at the despatch box the climate minister Graham Stuart received a message from a junior No 10 official that it was no longer a confidence issue. After making a call to Truss, who told him not to make a point of order, he dropped the announcement into his winding up speech.

 

Then all hell broke loose, with MPs in a frenzy about whether they could rebel or not.

 

In the division lobby, there was chaos, with Jacob Rees-Mogg and Thérèse Coffey, the deputy prime minister, trying to steer colleagues to back the government. Rees-Mogg was overheard threatening rebels with a “snap general election” if they failed to back the government.

 

The chaos was capped with Morton, who felt undermined by the change, “in floods of tears” rushing through the voting lobby: “I am no longer chief whip.” Whittaker, furious that political defeat had been snatched from a Commons victory was heard saying: “I am f***ing furious and I don’t give a f*** any more.”

 

The government won the vote with a majority of 96, but for nearly two hours no one knew if they had both resigned, a situation not fully resolved until 1.30am.

 

Close allies think Truss made her mind up that night to quit. She cancelled a meeting with Hunt and after an apparently restless night was up at 5am on Thursday messaging aides.

 

The 9am morning meeting that day in No 10 was one of the more surreal gatherings in recent political history. Truss was concerned she had lost every national newspaper with the exception of the Daily Express, whose readers liked the confirmation of the pensions triple lock. “That one front page cost us £5 billion,” said one senior Tory. “It would have been cheaper to just buy the newspaper.”

 

Those present were incredulous that the “whip’s report” was just the fourth item on the agenda. “I was sitting there thinking: ‘There isn’t just an elephant but a f***ing T-rex in the room and no one is acknowledging it,’” said one aide. “It was completely mad.”

 

Morton began her remarks by saying: “Can I just say my whips’ office is devastated by what happened.” The witness said: “It was as if none of it was anything to do with her.” The chief whip was then quizzed by Coffey, who pointed out she had moved some of the business on the parliamentary timetable. But when asked what it was, Morton replied: “I haven’t got that on me deputy prime minister,” an answer that reinforced the view of many in the room that she was clueless about her role.

 

Morton then got up and announced that she had to be somewhere else. As she reached the door, she turned and said, in what is described as a “medium pace Yorkshire accent”: “Just remember. I. Am. The. Chief. Whip.” She left, leaving officials open-mouthed.

 

Truss, furious at Morton, was now becoming reconciled to her fate. “It is difficult, isn’t it?” she told one confidant. The moment some staff knew it was over came late morning when they noticed Truss had changed her clothes. “She started the day in a red-ochre outfit and then I spotted she had changed into a dark blue suit,” one said — suitable attire for a political funeral.

 

That was how she received Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, who was photographed slipping in by the rear entrance to Downing Street at 11.43am. Truss had summoned Brady but he told friends he was “reaching for his phone” to request a meeting with her when he was summoned. A cascade of MPs had contacted him overnight — some with formal letters of no confidence, others with WhatsApps and emails — saying Truss had to go. The prime minister asked: “Do you think the situation is retrievable?” Brady replied: “No,” and Truss concurred: “I don’t either.”

 

At 1pm Truss told political aides and No 10 officials that she was going to resign. Close allies like Ranil Jayawardena, the environment secretary, and the trade minister Greg Hands had also assembled. “She was very together,” an ally said. Truss explained that her position was not tenable and said: “Politics is a blood sport,” a quote made famous by Labour’s Aneurin Bevan. Those standing close to the prime minister heard her, sotto voce, add: “And I’m the fox.”

 

By then Truss had called her husband, Hugh O’Leary, asking him to leave work and come to No 10. He was the only one in the street supporting her when she addressed the nation at 1.35pm, where she repeated the same message.

 

At the end of the day, Truss and a dozen aides had drinks in the Downing Street flat with her husband and two daughters. Some gazed at the Lulu Lytle decor installed by Carrie Johnson. Regular visitors to the flat know that there is no gold wallpaper at all. “It’s sort of red and looks like painted lacquer,” one Thursday night visitor said.

 

The mood was downbeat. One close aide said: “I have to say this is an absolute tragedy. Liz Truss should have been a great PM. The sadness the staff feel is akin to a loved one dying. ‘Haunted’ is all I can really say to explain how I feel.”

 

But this weekend, senior Tories and members of Truss’s team have assembled a circular firing squad, levelling brutal criticism at each other for the basic failures of her administration.

 

Insiders pointed the finger of blame at Truss’s dysfunctional political operation, blaming Fullbrook and his deputy, Ruth Porter (who were themselves sometimes daggers drawn) of running a paranoid and ineffective operation that froze out the communications team under Adam Jones, who was absent over the past fortnight because he was getting married and on honeymoon.

 

On Tuesday members of the war room team met officials for a grid meeting on the plans for future No 10 activity. As it concluded, one revealed: “We’ve never met before,” an astonishing state of affairs six weeks into a new government.

 

Some Tory MPs have branded Fullbrook “Chief Wiggum”, the corpulent police chief in The Simpsons who is too lazy to fight crime. Political aides mocked the way he gave everyone a copy of “Total Competition: lessons in strategy from Formula One,” by the former team boss Ross Brawn as a substitute for “a proper political strategy”. Others pointed out that he had to confess on a WhatsApp chain at the recent Tory conference after the manager of the Hyatt hotel complained about aides abusing a VIP room service facility reserved for the prime minister. One adviser said: “Rome was burning and he was fiddling room service pretending to be the PM.” A party grandee said “a pumpkin on a stick would have done a better job”.

 

In Fullbrook’s defence he had spells of absence because of a family death and an illness and allies say he was seldom listened to by Truss’s tight-knit team of young and often inexperienced aides.

 

The question for the party is whether this circular firing squad now extends to the party as a whole. In an attempt to limit the number of candidates to replace Truss, the 1922 Committee agreed new rules on Thursday that only candidates with the backing of 100 MPs will be on the ballot paper when MPs vote on Monday.

 

Some say that was put forward by some members of the 1922 executive in an attempt to thwart Johnson’s comeback ambitions. At least one member of the committee recommended the threshold be set at 150 nominations to end any hope of Johnson standing.

 

The former prime minister made dozens of calls to MPs and cabinet ministers from his Caribbean beach holiday. One minister said: “He [Johnson] has been seeking to assure people that he would build a good team around him and unlike the last time would start off his tenure by bringing some grown-ups with him into Downing Street.”

 

Karen Bradley, the former cabinet minister, who was keeping a private tally of the MPs supporting each candidate, had Johnson on 120 on Friday evening and Sunak on 140, with Mordaunt trailing on 75. She told allies that Johnson’s numbers had fallen over the past 24 hours — suggesting the momentum behind him had already reached its peak.

 

Johnson’s momentum was further stalled yesterday when Charles Moore, a close friend from his Daily Telegraph days, wrote in that paper that it was too soon to come back. “I can see Boris storming back in different circumstances, with a Labour government in disarray and a lacklustre Tory opposition seeking renewal. I don’t see it working right now. True Boris fans will have the courage to tell him to sit this one out.”

 

MPs are queasy about the privileges committee investigation into whether Johnson lied to the Commons over the Partygate scandal, which could see him suspended from the House, triggering a bid to oust him as an MP. Johnson’s allies were forced yesterday to say he would not try to scrap the investigation if he returned to Downing Street, after rivals claimed he was telling MPs he would do that.

 

On Saturday a close ally of Mordaunt admitted she was unlikely to get the numbers to get on the ballot paper: “Honestly, I don’t see how she can win.” The leader of the Commons is now thought likely to play the role of kingmaker and is apparently leaning towards Sunak. On Friday, party insiders had blamed Andrea Leadsom, Mordaunt’s campaign manager, for advising her against becoming Sunak’s running mate.

 

The former chancellor seems to be in pole position, but he knows that if the vote goes to the membership, he could still lose to Johnson. Aides, however, think he would see off the “big dog” amid warnings that some MPs would resign the whip if Johnson wins, a move that could hasten a general election.

 

Another MP accused Sunak of being complacent and overconfident that he could see off Johnson without doing a deal with his rival. “His [Sunak] campaign is as arrogant as it was last time. They have already got Gavin Williamson to publicly back him and everyone knows that for most people that is a huge turn off.”

 

Amidst this supreme psychodrama, which makes the bloodletting between the Miliband brothers look like a less than thrilling midweek episode of EastEnders, some senior Tories are still thinking about the good of the country and the economy.

 

Whoever becomes prime minister, Treasury sources say the Halloween budget will go ahead, irrespective of who is chancellor. It is understood they want to ensure a “proper financial statement” takes place before the next meeting of the Bank of England monetary policy committee on November 3, when interest rates are predicted to rise.

 

Hunt spoke to both Sunak and Mordaunt on Friday and is due to talk to Johnson on Monday. Mordaunt explicitly promised he would remain as chancellor if she won and the other two candidates are likely to keep him in post as well.

 

The independent Office for Budget Responsibility has already received details of Hunt’s planned significant fiscal measures and will receive minor measures over the coming days. “The picture is grim,” a source said. “Whoever wins, tough decisions will need to be made.”

 

The question remains whether they will be decisions made together or whether the budget creates new fissures in Tory ranks.

 

Ben Wallace, the defence secretary who declined to run, is calling for unity, demanding that all three candidates work together. On Saturday he called Johnson and urged him to talk to both Sunak and Mordaunt.

 

“I want to see a triumvirate,” he said. “For the sake of the country, all three of them have to come together and put aside their egos and recognise that without unity we will have a constitutional crisis and that the new leader will not be able to command a majority.”

 

Wallace, who says he still “leans” towards his old friend Johnson, added: “Rishi has to jettison some of the people around him who have been engaged in the dark arts and destabilising the government, such as Gavin Williamson and Julian Smith. MPs do not want to see them rewarded. Boris has to answer all the questions of the privileges committee properly. Penny and the others have to make clear what their priorities are and where the £40 billion of cuts are going to fall.”

 

Whatever the outcome, it will make a very good film. Perhaps the premier should be at Bafta.

[Mudface]

38 minutes ago, Sugar Ape said:

Is the tide going out on Boris Johnson’s comeback? | News | The Sunday Times (thetimes.co.uk)

<snip>

Fucking bunch of cunts, jostling for position in this endless Tory soap opera while the entire country burns.

[polymerpunkah]

Sunak making backroom deals with Johnson.

 

Are they capable of doing anything in an honest, open, and straightforward manner?

[kop77]

https://twitter.com/i/status/1583577125386604544

[Section_31]

3 hours ago, polymerpunkah said:

Sunak making backroom deals with Johnson.

 

Are they capable of doing anything in an honest, open, and straightforward manner?

Predictable. 

 

He's trying to position himself as king maker by bullshitting he's got enough support in exchange for something, wonder if it's to drop the investigation into him?

 

But yeah, all of what the tory mps have been talking about in the last two weeks has been who can most likely get them re elected, rather than who can fix the mess they helped create. They're vile.

[Anubis]

Hodges says some Tory party doners have been told he won’t run. Whether that means he’s done a deal with Sunak or not, who knows.

[Gnasher]

Johnsons bothered voting in the commons once since being forced to resign, and that was a vote on his own incompetence. He's been on numerous foreign holidays during parliamentary time.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/23/boris-johnson-busy-post-resignation-schedule-of-luxury-holidays

 

The below endorsement shows one of his new publicity photos infront of the union flag. Fucking state of the man.

 

 

 

 

 

[Pete]

He’s a cunt. They’re all cunts but he’s the biggest one.  He’s like the head vampire. Kill him and the rest die. So for the country’s sake someone (metaphorically) kill him.

[Guest]

10 hours ago, Sugar Ape said:

The leader of the Commons is now thought likely to play the role of kingmaker and is apparently leaning towards Sunak.

I would have thought she’d be locking laser targets and continuing to hold the fire button until she was grinding metal.

[Tj hooker]

Tories being two faced cunts who'd have thought it 

 

[Anubis]

Now even some of the nut jobs are backing Sunak.

 

 

[Megadrive Man]

If people like Baker are backing Sunak then that's the end of the road for Johnson? 

 

 

[TD_LFC]

David Morris on Sky News saying party gate was irrelevant, Johnson was the one trying to get to the bottom of it by asking for the investigation, the pictures were dreamt up by the press, we wasn't found guilty of anything and the privilege's committee  have nothing on him.

 

These cunts are deluded.

[sir roger]

1 minute ago, TD_LFC said:

David Morris on Sky News saying party gate was irrelevant, Johnson was the one trying to get to the bottom of it by asking for the investigation, the pictures were dreamt up by the press, we wasn't found guilty of anything and the privilege's committee  have nothing on him.

 

These cunts are deluded.

Any mention of Lizards ?

[TD_LFC]

1 minute ago, sir roger said:

Any mention of Lizards ?

No but he does blink sideways....

[sir roger]

Lost track of my post where I guessed Johnson would be the biggest worry election-wise for Labour and somebody replied he was polling the worst of the three possible Tory candidates. Thought it seemed odd, and a poll in the Indy showing Mordaunt would potentially lose 217 seats, Sunak 116 and Johnson 26. This country, man.

[Arniepie]

12 hours ago, Mudface said:

Fucking bunch of cunts, jostling for position in this endless Tory soap opera while the entire country burns.

Was thinking that myself 

[Barrington Womble]

2 hours ago, MegadriveMan said:

If people like Baker are backing Sunak then that's the end of the road for Johnson? 

 

 

It looks like mobs like the ERG are split down the middle on this. I assume at some point they'll soon it they had 2 unity candidates to choose from. 

[TheHowieLama]

5 hours ago, Gnasher said:

 

 

 

 

 

[Gnasher]

 

 

 

[Gnasher]

Zing.

 

 

 

 

[magicrat]

14 minutes ago, Gnasher said:

Zing.

 

 

 

 

Not like Boris to let people down 

[TheHowieLama]

Why would he come back? He can't lay the blame on anyone else.

He would be an idiot to even consider it.

[magicrat]

2 minutes ago, TheHowieLama said:

Why would he come back? He can't lay the blame on anyone else.

He would be an idiot to even consider it.

Why do any of these pathological cunts think that ego trumps everything . I cant fathom the likes of Trump and Putin that think nothing of risking the prosperity and safety of millions of their fellow humans. There must be some kind of cunt gene that needs screening out at birth, 

[Gnasher]

Nice to see some things never change. Heres the BBCs top political commentator following in the footsteps of his predecessor by spouting whatever bullshit the Boris Johnson camp tells him.