On 9 May 2003 I was having dinner with Nigella Lawson, Charles Saatchi and Dominic Lawson at the Rib Room of the Carlton Tower Hotel when the subject of who would make a good leader of the Conservative party came up. Iain Duncan Smith was struggling and didn’t look as though he’d last the year.
‘I think Dominic would be perfect,’ said Charles.
‘I think I could do it,’ said Nigella. ‘I could get a seat and be leading the party within five years.’
I suggested Boris Johnson, at that time the editor of this magazine and the Conservative MP for Henley. I hadn’t meant it particularly seriously, but when Nigella dismissed the idea I felt an unexpected surge of loyalty. Not only was he my boss, but I’d known him on and off since we were at Oxford together in the mid-Eighties. I regarded him then —and still do —as the most naturally gifted politician of our generation.
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