Boris Johnson is currently the quiet man of the Tory leadership contest, lurking in the shadows rather than courting media attention as he usually does. His campaign team has deliberately held him back from touring the studios to avoid gaffes or rows. They’re even nervous about the limited exposure he has, joking that he is ‘always one Monday column away from disaster’. Of course, it’s easier to do this when your candidate has as high a profile as Johnson: he doesn’t really need any more attention than he’s already got.
It is, though, not the greatest of compliments from those members of his campaign team that they seem to feel Johnson cannot be trusted not to cause a career-damaging row when the stakes are so high. Could they really maintain the same level of control over Johnson if he made it to Downing Street, shutting him away from press conferences and only allowing him to emerge to ruffle his hair in an endearing fashion?
What is stranger than this lack of confidence in Johnson from his own team is the failure of the other candidates to exploit his many weaknesses.
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