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And here are two of the more interesting columns in today’s papers on the situation in the Conservative party.
Just before Gordon Brown became prime minister I had lunch with Philip Gould, the strategic adviser who was central to the creation of New Labour, and reviewed what was to come. “Gordon knows he will have to change now,” he said. And the moment he said that I realised the whole thing was going to be a fiasco. Because people don’t change …
Few people are less reliant upon their advisers than Johnson. People always say they want their politicians to write their own speeches and Peppa Pig is what happens when they do. Johnson finds it hard to let go of his script and doesn’t want to mouth platitudes written by someone else. So he scribbles all over the draft, shuffling the pages and adding in metaphors. It was a mess, but a genuine mess.
While Farage and small boats are grabbing the most attention, another revolt on the right should not be Johnson’s chief fear. The bigger electoral challenges come from the fragile economy — rising inflation and interest rates, plus sluggish growth — and his seeming lack of governing grip, with a threat of winter shortages. Johnson’s policy outlook and style risks losing those voters his party picked up in 2005 and 2010. The battleground which may soon dominate British politics is the set of middle-class, middle-income, middle of the road, middle England seats which voted Tory because they were fed up with Labour. After 11 years in power, the cycle could be about to go into reverse.
Several sources yesterday pointed the finger at the unit’s chief Liam Booth-Smith, who is said to make little effort to disguise his disdain for the PM.
The former thinktank boss affects the same scruffy look as Mr [Dominic] Cummings and is said to share at least some of his criticisms of Mr Johnson.
One Tory whip told The Telegraph it was now an “assumption” that some disgruntled MPs had submitted no confidence letters to the 1922 Committee.
The committee, made up of Tory backbenchers, collects any no confidence letters. If 15 per cent of sitting Conservative MPs submit them, a leadership contest is triggered.
David Cameron lobbied Lloyds Banking Group to reverse a decision to cut ties with the ailing Greensill Capital, appealing to a board member whom he had ennobled while prime minister.
Cameron lobbied Lloyds in January, according to people familiar with the matter, when he contacted Lord James Lupton, a director of the bank who had previously been a Conservative party treasurer, in a successful attempt to persuade the bank to continue doing business with Greensill.
