An article appeared last week on the Political Betting website asking how much longer can Johnson continue to defy political gravity. His satisfaction rating in October was way above that of his party (albeit lower than any previous PM). His party's dead weight would quickly drag him back to earth if it wasn't for Johnson's gravity defying ability to float effortlessly above it all. Or so it seems. The paradox is that he has far more flaws than the worst politician and is probably the Tories greatest unacknowledged liability.
Many of his character traits were known or obvious even before his appointment to the Foreign Office. Max Hastings, his former employer at The Telegraph, has written several excellent and excoriating pieces about him going back to 2012 so no one was in any doubt about his mendacity, dishonesty and moral bankruptcy. No, that was all priced in.
Even his disastrous spell bumbling around the world blackening the country's name with various insults directed at foreigners, both calculated and inadvertent, did little to damage him.
But since being appointed as leader of the Tory party and hence prime minister, various other stories and events, including the unlawful proroguing of parliament, have been added to his catalogue and threaten to puncture his balloon
For example, the Jennifer Arcuri affair was reignited again last night and I believe the lady herself is intending to appear on Victoria Derbyshire's show on BBC this morning. I think it's pretty clear there was something serious going on between her and Johnson and that he directed taxpayer's money towards her business without disclosing a personal interest. He must be worried about what she might say during a live interview.
Next, The Guardian are reporting his affair with another woman, Helen Macintyre who had his child while she was an unpaid adviser to City Hall. This was all aired in 2010 but the then Mayor of London "acknowledged to the Greater London Authority’s standards committee at the time that a potential conflict of interest had not been disclosed over Macintyre and vowed to 'bear in mind the definition of close associate for the future'." The London Assembly is now looking at the 'vow' he made at the time. What the value of a pledge made by someone as untrustworthy as Johnson is, I wouldn't like to say. Not very much I imagine.
The Guardian are also reporting that Johnson met Yevgeny Lebedev's father Alexander, a former KGB spy in Italy in 2018 during a party at Yevgeny's castle near Perugia. Is anyone ever a 'former' KGB spy by the way? Again, I'm not sure but think not. One has to question how the son of a spy comes to own a castle in Italy - but let's pass on that for the moment. More worrying is that the meeting was without any security officials or civil servants present.
Coupled with Johnson personally blocking the publication of the ISC Committee's report into Russia interference and donations to the Conservative party and it doesn't look good does it? The latest leak is in The Sunday Times which claims the report says Russian interference may have had an impact on the 2016 Brexit referendum, but the effect was 'unquantifiable'. Hardly a ringing endorsement for our democratic processes.
Brandon Lewis, the security minister, told Sky News the report would be published but not until after the election because “We want to make sure, particularly where national security is involved, we go through that process properly and thoroughly,”. I'm sure the fact that Lewis himself received almost £20,000 from Alexander Temerko had no influence either.
Now we learn the prime minister's Svengali, Dominic Cummings is accused of having contact (i.e. directing) the party's election campaign while still employed as a Special Advisor, in other words a civil servant or government employee who is not supposed to get involved in political campaigning. The Lib Dems have now written to Civil Service chief Sir Mark Sedwill, asking for assurances that Cummings has not breached the code of conduct for Spads.
Johnson is struggling in his own seat in Uxbridge where a coalition of opposition groups is said to be galvanising the under 25 vote in support of the Labour candidate. Let's hope the good people of Uxbridge can unseat him.
His campaign team are deliberately keeping him away from any passing members of the public since he is as likely to be heckled as cheered.
Today Johnson is set to deliver a speech to the CBI where he is expected to tell them he knows they didn't want Brexit but he will ask for their support in this election. It is delivering a cup of cold sick and presenting it as an exciting delicacy.
And this of course leads me on to what is perhaps Johnson's biggest flaw. He does not understand or care what he is about to do to the country. Brexit is probably the greatest foreign policy mistake ever made by any country since 1939. I can forgive (perhaps!) the millions of people who voted to leave. They didn't know what they were voting for. But I cannot forgive those like Johnson, who led us into the mess without knowing what they were doing or why.
The Tories lead in the polls and on present trends (and on the doorsteps of Keighley yesterday) it looks like Johnson might get a majority. But nobody is voting with any enthusiasm. I would not be surprised to see a record low turnout. Conservative support is soft and it would only take one of these potential scandals to really blow up to destroy his chances.
There is still a long way to go.
