One imagines he must have told his family and friends, preening himself on his good fortune and excellent judgement on the man who had plucked him from the obscurity of Selby and Ainsty to a seat around the cabinet table. We can only imagine which famous bottoms of former ministers and even prime ministers had rested on the chairs on which our Nigel has sat. Think about that - but don't dwell on it too long.
However, (there’s always a however) not even the years of being at the disgraced former prime minister’s beck and call, doing his dirty work and watching first-hand as he betrayed those closest to him, could have prepared him for the shock of learning last week that his peerage was like so many of Johnson’s pledges, utterly worthless, another cheque that bounced when presented for payment against his permanently overdrawn loyalty account.
We learned over the weekend that our MP has quit in high dudgeon after learning the peerage he has no doubt been privately boasting about for months, is not going to happen.
And Adams’ predictable reaction was the same as all the others, to absolve the man responsible of any blame. Such blind attachment is impressive, although it must be said he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, since he still doesn’t realise he is after all, just another one of Johnson’s deluded stooges, perhaps the most doggedly loyal alongside the shameless Nadine Dorries.
It's hard to suppress a laugh when the events leading up to this profound disappointment are reported in The Sunday Times. The peerage was lost because Johnson, never up on the details of anything, didn't understand the rules.
"Dorries, [Alok] Sharma and Adams were removed by Holac [House of Lords Appointments Commission] because, under the rules, for them to remain on Johnson’s list they would have had to have resigned as MPs within six months. None of them signalled to Holac they would do so. That left them with only one alternative: that Sunak would, at a later date and in his own name, formally nominate them for peerages. He was not prepared to do so."
"This technical process appears to have been lost on Johnson and his nominees, who were under the mistaken belief they could be automatically re-vetted every six months without needing to be renominated as long as they announced they were standing down before the election.
"Both Dorries and Sharma sought to get clarification from No 10 and Holac. 'That information was deliberately withheld,' said one of the would-be peers. 'If anyone had said to us that we needed to stand down to be on the list, that is what we would have done. They withheld the process to stop by-elections and look what has happened. I think there was something much more devious and sinister about it. They want Boris and his allies out of Westminster'.”
The action of Dorries and Adams in resigning as MPs had nothing noble about it, done as it was in a fit of rage and self-pity. You can only wonder how badly they both wanted to get into the upper house. It was nothing to do with their constituents or to improve the nation's governance (although a side effect is that it probably will), it was all about being slighted and taking revenge on the person (Sunak) who apparently had nothing to do with blocking their path.
Who would have thought that Adams would play a key part in Johnson's downfall? Amazing, eh? In Selby we are already looking forward to endless polling, a blizzard of leafletting and being stopped on Gowthorpe by BBC correspondents asking our opinion.
If Adams expects a Johnson comeback, he’s likely to be disappointed. Johnson thinks he's a vote-winning machine but this sub-stack blog makes it clear that he is anything but. He won the 2019 general election because of Corbyn, as anyone who did any door-knocking in the campaign would have realised. Virtually any other Labour leader would have reduced his majority and might even have won.
The divisions Johnson has deliberately created for his own advancement will outlast him and can be seen in the range of articles in the weekend papers. This one by Anthony Seldon is particularly good since he has written a book about Johnson's time in No 10: The damage Boris Johnson has done is beyond measure. Another, by Matthew Syed, is equally good: Johnson’s Brexit chicanery has led us into Doublethink Britain.
Meanwhile, Lord Frost in the Telegraph writes that: Boris Johnson was one of the most consequential politicians in decades.
This is probably true but not in the way he thinks. Britain will be living with the consequences of his brief period in Downing Street for decades. Johnsonism has impoverished us economically and morally and he will I am sure, continue to have a malign impact on our politics until he dies. He is that sort of man.
His much-diminished band of supporters who came out to denounce the Privileges Committee as a 'Kangaroo Court' are themselves in trouble and may face charges of being in contempt of parliament. These are dangerous times, don't underestimate them. When a country's legislature, the supreme law-making body, can be dismissed by its own members as being nothing or of little consequence, anarchy beckons.
We also find out that HOLAC rejected eight of Johnson's nominees for peerages on the "grounds of propriety" according to the BBC. I can't wait to find out who they were - my guess is his father was one of them.
One nomination that did succeed was that of Charlotte Tranter- Owen a 29-year-old 'special adviser' (is that a euphemism?). She will be Lady Owen. Nobody knows what she might have done to deserve the honour:
The problem isn't that Charlotte Owen is young. Lots of people have done remarkable things by the time they're 30 & the upper house could do with more young people.
— Tom Scott 🇺🇦 (@Tom___Scott) June 11, 2023
But the only remarkable thing she's done is to work in a very junior role for a deeply corrupt prime minister. https://t.co/TKRyNs56Wo
There is some speculation that she may be the daughter of Allegra Mostyn-Owen, Johnson's first wife since she was born in the year they were married. I have to say there is no proof but it would all fit with Boris Johnson wouldn't it?
