Boris Johnson is a bit of a wide boy when it comes to his personal finances and the trappings of office. Though such an observation may offend some of the PM’s most ardent supporters – the kind of people who initially claimed that his outrageous attempt to get Owen Paterson off the hook was perfectly fine – it has permeated the national consciousness.
No doubt the same ardent Boris-backers will happily accept he wasn’t hinting at a quid pro quo when he mentioned a pet project of Lord Brownlow’s in the same WhatsApp message in which he asked about funds to bankroll his high-end aspirations for his personal living quarters. Many of the rest of us will find us rolling our eyes at yet another example of conduct that would have befitted David Lloyd George, or possibly Tony Blair when he was deciding which sports should be subject to a tobacco advertising ban.
Labour’s po-faced denunciations of Boris have become a political blind alley
It would, of course, be nice were Johnson not like this.
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