Do Tories know the truth about Boris Johnson?

Exactly 40 years ago tomorrow, four Labour party grandees issued the Limehouse Declaration, signalling ‘the re-emergence of social democracy in Great Britain’. The declaration, made on a windswept bridge near the east London home of Dr David Owen, marked the formation of a Council for Social Democracy, that soon became a fully-fledged political party, the SDP. The ‘gang of four’ very nearly succeeded in breaking the mould of British politics, as their moderation hit the spot with millions of voters who opposed Thatcherism but also recoiled from Labour’s radical socialist agenda of the time.

But they were thwarted, first by Britain’s first past the post electoral system that made gaining a big parliamentary representation all but impossible. And then by Labour’s slow march back towards the centre ground. The leading lights of the SDP dispersed across British politics as they searched for a suitable vehicle in which to advance their ideas.