Boris Johnson.

[northwestman]

I always wondered why he pulled out at the last minute. Something he's not noted for!

This article seems to have some credibility, as we are well aware of the snouts in the trough mentality which pervades UK Politics:

www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/nov/06/boris-johnson-quit-pm-race-over-risk-to-10m-earnings-sources-say

Boris Johnson would have forfeited earnings of at least £10m a year from speeches and sales of his memoirs if he had fought a leadership battle against Rishi Sunak and lost, according to informed sources in the entertainment industry, who believe financial considerations played a part in his decision to pull out.

Since he resigned in July, Johnson is known to have been in talks with entertainment and talent agencies including Endeavour, run by US businessman Ari Emanuel, and the Harry Walker Agency (HWA), one of its subsidiaries.

HWA’s clients include Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Serena Williams.

Most Tories, including Johnson supporters, believe the main reason behind his withdrawal from the contest to replace Truss a fortnight ago was that he was being told he risked destroying the Tory party, and his reputation with it. However, some of his allies were surprised and felt let down by his decision.

“There were a lot of people upset with Boris,” one senior Tory figure said. “They’d backed him publicly only to see him pull out at the last minute. They didn’t understand why.”

Their confusion deepened on Friday when Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers, made it clear that Johnson had definitely received enough nominations (the backing of at least 100 MPs) to proceed to a final “indicative” vote of MPs and then a ballot of the 170,000 or so party members who’d have the final say. At the time some doubted he had got close to 100.

The Observer has been told that people associated with Emanuel made it clear to Johnson that had he lost against Sunak, his appeal to global audiences, and therefore a good deal of his earning power, would disappear. It is understood that the talent industry believed his value would have dropped by at least half.

Meanwhile Matt Hancock, the former health secretary, was told yesterday he could earn around £1m a year having signed up for I’m a Celebrity.

Showbiz guru Jonathan Shalit, the CEO of the InterTalent Rights Group, told GB News: “I suspect the reasons are quite simple. He needs to make a ton of money. Now he’s divorced from a lady; he’s got children. He doesn’t get much money as a backbench MP, yet his outgoings will be significant, if not more, so he needs a lot of money.

[ssshrew]

I think he pulled out to let someone else sort out the dreadful mess we are in.

He can then return as Mr I’m an OK guy should the fools who want him back get their way.

[northwestman]

In her Times story Lara Spirit says Johnson has nominated Ross Kempsell, 30, and Charlotte Owen, who is thought to be in her late 20s, for the Lords. Spirit says they would be the youngest people ever to receive life peerages. She says:

Kempsell, a former journalist, recently stepped down as the Conservative party’s political director. Owen, who graduated from university in 2015, had been a parliamentary assistant to Sir Jake Berry, the former party chairman, and Johnson before joining the No 10 policy unit last year. She later worked jointly for Liz Truss and Wendy Morton, at that time the chief whip.

Spirit says Johnson has nominated around 20 people in total for peerages. She says others on the list include the Tory MPs Nadine Dorries, Alok Sharma, Alister Jack and Nigel Adams; former No 10 aides Dan Rosenfield and Ben Gascoigne; David Ross, the Tory donor and Carphone Warehouse founder who funded a holiday for Johnson and his wife in a luxury villa in Mustique in December 2019; Paul Dacre, the former Daily Mail editor; Ben Houchen, the Tees Valley mayor; and Shaun Bailey, the former Tory mayoral candidate for London.

[martinshrew]

Nov 8, 2022 13:54:51 GMT 1 northwestman said:

In her Times story Lara Spirit says Johnson has nominated Ross Kempsell, 30, and Charlotte Owen, who is thought to be in her late 20s, for the Lords. Spirit says they would be the youngest people ever to receive life peerages. She says:

Kempsell, a former journalist, recently stepped down as the Conservative party’s political director. Owen, who graduated from university in 2015, had been a parliamentary assistant to Sir Jake Berry, the former party chairman, and Johnson before joining the No 10 policy unit last year. She later worked jointly for Liz Truss and Wendy Morton, at that time the chief whip.

Spirit says Johnson has nominated around 20 people in total for peerages. She says others on the list include the Tory MPs Nadine Dorries, Alok Sharma, Alister Jack and Nigel Adams; former No 10 aides Dan Rosenfield and Ben Gascoigne; David Ross, the Tory donor and Carphone Warehouse founder who funded a holiday for Johnson and his wife in a luxury villa in Mustique in December 2019; Paul Dacre, the former Daily Mail editor; Ben Houchen, the Tees Valley mayor; and Shaun Bailey, the former Tory mayoral candidate for London.

All these nonsense positions need cancelling. The whole thing needs streamlining, the process and pay for ex-PMs is utter b******s.

[northwestman]

'Sir' Jake Berry (given his knighthood by Boris) certainly seems to be an ally of Johnson.

Since being sacked by Sunak he's trashed both Braverman and Williamson.

Mind you, Johnson also gave a knighthood to Williamson, presumably for services rendered, as he's been an utter disaster in both his Ministerial appointments.

[northwestman]

Many will feel too far gone to react angrily to a Boris Johnson resignation honours list that includes peerages for young No 10 aides (one of whom, Charlotte Owen, is said to be in her late 20s); for Nadine Dorries; for the former Tory mayoral candidate who threw a lockdown party; for MPs who are “deferring” taking their ermine till after the next election so as not to risk unfortunate bye election results for the governing party; and for the guy who paid for Johnson’s wildly expensive holiday to Mustique that the then prime minister repeatedly lied about.

Indeed, all of this ennoblement is being pushed while Johnson is himself being investigated by the privileges committee on a charge of misleading the house, for which the penalty could be his removal from it.

Johnson’s allies stress that the former PM has in fact proffered a “slimmed-down” list, compared with what he had originally planned. Yet that is solely because – as we now know only too well – the recently ousted Johnson actively seeks a swift return to Downing Street. Trust me, had he decided to draw a final line under the dignity-aborting era that was his political career, this list would have contained everyone from his toddler son to the hairdresser who paints over Lord Lebedev’s beard regrowth however many times a week. Lord Brownlow – the sad-sack who paid for seemingly every luxury item the Johnsons bought but couldn’t afford – would have been made a duke.

Every now and then I have to remind myself that at least 56 MPs are reportedly facing sexual misconduct allegations. Where are we with any of those? There are now so many of these stories that we lose track of how they end – or even what happens after they have first broken.

The other day I suddenly remembered David Warburton MP, the member for Somerset and Frome, who in April was suspended from the Conservative party following multiple sexual assault allegations and claims of cocaine use (in response, he insisted he had “enormous amounts of defence” against the claims). What happened with that story, I wonder?

Marina Hyde.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/08/cronyism-donors-mps-johnson-honours-scandals-tories

[northwestman]

And there is that other unnamed Tory M.P. who has not even been suspended but warned to stay off the Parliamentary estate having been arrested on suspicion of rape and other offences.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/18/why-tory-mp-arrested-suspicion-rape-not-being-named

[northwestman]

No surprise here.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/nov/08/partygate-inquiry-delays-blamed-on-government-foot-dragging

The next phase of a high-stakes inquiry into whether Boris Johnson misled parliament over Partygate faces being delayed due to government failures to provide crucial evidence to MPs, sources have told the Guardian.

Despite a range of documents – including the former prime minister’s diaries, event email invites, No 10 entry logs, briefing papers and WhatsApps – being requested more than three months ago, some have not been handed over yet.

No 10 and the Cabinet Office have been blamed for the delay and MPs on the privileges committee are still waiting to sift through all the evidence before beginning their oral evidence sessions.

Johnson is expected to be called to give evidence and the committee initially hoped to summon its first witnesses by the end of October.

However, the timetable has slipped, sources said. They claimed that while there are still plans for oral evidence sessions to be held “before the end of autumn”, work had progressed slower than expected.

But delays in receiving key documents from the government are said to have further hindered the process.

A source said it was “impossible to carry out” interviews before all the evidence had been received, so it could be scrutinised and follow-up questions prepared to ask witnesses. Another said the government was being “****ing difficult”.

While some information has been provided to the committee, it is believed to have been redacted to such an extent that crucial details are missing and repeated attempts to extract more details have so far proved fruitless.

Concerns have been raised that the government could be in contempt of parliament by not satisfying the committee’s request.

Government insiders said there was no set date when they were obliged to respond to ad hoc requests for information or documents from a select committee.

A document including details of the nearly £130,000 contract for legal advice disparaging the Partygate inquiry was also heavily redacted.

[staffordshrew]

Alok Sharma worked hard on COP26, so maybe deserves a peerage?

Wonder if Fabricant and Danny K felt they might get a peerage? Could be the only way Danny K could stay in politics if the selection committee come to their senses...

[zenfootball2]

Nov 8, 2022 16:45:03 GMT 1 northwestman said:

And there is that other unnamed Tory M.P. who has not even been suspended but warned to stay off the Parliamentary estate having been arrested on suspicion of rape and other offences.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/18/why-tory-mp-arrested-suspicion-rape-not-being-named

in recent times the behaviour and morality of some MP's has hit an all time low. which is hard for the genuine hard working ones.

[northwestman]

Boris Johnson has compared Liz Truss’s mini-budget to a badly played piano, in a reference to a Morecambe and Wise sketch.

Asked by CNN what he thought of his successor’s disastrous tax-cutting plans, the former Prime Minister originally tried to sidestep the issue - saying it was rude to criticise a British government abroad.

But then, in his first comments on the mini-budget, he said: “It’s kind of like when I play the piano. The notes individually sound perfectly OK, but they’re not in the right order, or occurring at the right time.”

This reflected the famous 1971 sketch in which conductor André Previn criticised Eric Morecambe over his bad playing of Grieg’s Piano Concerto, prompting him to reply: “I’m playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order.”

Daily Telegraph.

[edgmond]

Unless I’m mistaken, from reading the previous post it seems that Johnson is out of the country….AGAIN.

As he is being paid large sums of money for speeches and appearances, perhaps he might consider returning his MP’s salary. As for the people of Uxbridge, I suppose they only have themselves to blame for not having a representative in parliament but I doubt he made it clear at the hustings how little time he would devote to working for them.

There is a mechanism for removing a sitting MP, I believe. Let’s hope someone decides to put it into action and rid us of this deeply unpleasant man.

[northwestman]

Boris Johnson and Liz Truss have launched a challenge to Rishi Sunak’s authority by joining a Tory rebellion backing wind farms to tackle the energy crisis.

In their first major interventions since leaving Downing Street, the two former prime ministers have demanded an end to the ban on new onshore wind farms.

They both signed an amendment to the Government's Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, just days after Mr Sunak’s government was derailed by a separate Tory revolt on the same legislation.

The bill is designed to speed up housebuilding, which is crucial to Mr Sunak's growth agenda.

Daily Telegraph.

[northwestman]

www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/dec/13/ministers-accused-of-writing-blank-cheque-for-boris-johnson-legal-bills

Ministers have been accused of writing a “blank cheque” for Boris Johnson’s legal bills, as it emerged taxpayer-funded support was being extended to help defend him against claims he misled parliament over Partygate.

With just days left until a contract expires with the law firm Peters and Peters, which Johnson and the government have relied on to disparage an investigation by the privileges committee, the Guardian has learned the Cabinet Office intends to renew it.

The extension could be for up to six months given the investigation’s slow progress and was likely to be signed off without a new tender process, sources said.

Peters and Peters was given the four-month contract, worth nearly £130,000, in August. David Pannick, an advocate and king’s counsel, was instructed on the firm’s behalf.

The life peer has since sought to discredit the investigation by claiming MPs on the cross-party committee had adopted a “fundamentally flawed approach” and that their interpretation of whether any misleading was deliberate would have a “chilling effect” on future statements by ministers.

Johnson himself has protested his innocence, and is said to believe it is unclear what the committee is investigating.

The Peters and Peters contract expires on 16 December, but sources confirmed it would be extended to help Johnson and the government while the privileges committee inquiry continued.

While delays to the inquiry were caused by the death of the queen and wrangling over the addition of a new member to the committee, the government was also accused of delaying things by refusing to hand over, or heavily redacting, key documents.

[northwestman]

Boris Johnson is a constant reminder that our political system is rotten. Even though he is no longer in office, he reminds us that many see politics as a route to personal riches, not a motor to drive positive social change.

Despite the fact that Johnson’s time in Number 10 was overwhelmingly characterised by lies, incompetence and corruption, and even though the Tories forced him to resign just this summer, many people have somehow managed to whitewash their mental record and now look on him with a nostalgic fondness and admiration.

This week, it emerged that, since leaving Number 10 in September, Johnson had used his unwarranted popularity to earn more than £1,000,000 by making just four speeches in the US, India and Portugal.

Whatever you might think of the wisdom of paying hundreds of thousands of pounds to have Boris Johnson speak at your event, the thing that irritates most people is the fact that Johnson is still MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip and should be putting the interests of his constituents above his ability to turn a fast buck.

What is it about politicians like Johnson and Matt Hancock that means they think it’s ok to ditch the duty they have to their constituents as soon as a lucrative money-making opportunity presents itself?

And that isn’t the only way Johnson has been cashing in. He also seems to have taken several in-kind donations from Tory donors and other influential supporters.

Tory mega-donors Lord and Lady Bamford put Johnson and his wife up in a luxury Cotswolds estate last month after giving them over £20,000 for their wedding party. Johnson was also given £11,000 to visit Rupert Murdoch, head of the international right-wing media empire that owns publications from The Sun to Fox News.

And, if all that was not enough to spoil your breakfast, how about this…we also found out this week that taxpayers are STILL paying for Boris Johnson’s strategic legal advice on how he can escape the consequences of his Partygate criminality.

Liz Truss authorised the use of public funds to pay Johnson’s Partygate legal bills back in late September, and now Rishi Sunak has extended the contract, effectively writing Johnson and his rich lawyer buddies a blank cheque. Johnson just made over a million quid giving four speeches in three months, yet he still expects the public to pay for some fat cat lawyers to get him off the Partygate hook.

Open Britain.

[zenfootball2]

he is earning an obscene amount of money

[northwestman]

Boris Johnson is regarded as the “most competent” of 2022’s three prime ministers, a new poll has found.

In a year that saw a trio of Conservative party leaders, the largest share of British adults chose Mr Johnson as the best, according to the People Polling survey.

Thirty-two per cent of respondents said they thought he had been the most competent, followed by 29 per cent for Rishi Sunak.

Just three per cent opted for Liz Truss, who lasted just 45 days in Downing Street before standing down following a disastrous mini-Budget that saw the pound crash and the Bank of England forced into an emergency intervention to calm market turmoil.

The same question was put to those who voted for the Conservatives in the 2019 election. Among Tory voters, 62 per cent said Mr Johnson was the most competent, followed by 22 per cent choosing Mr Sunak and just four per cent opting for Ms Truss.

The poll also found that a majority (57 per cent) of the British public believe that “nothing in Britain works any more”.

Daily Telegraph.

This would be like voting at the end of 1945 for who was the least worst leader from Hitler, Mussolini or Hirohito. Who caused the least carnage?

[staffordshrew]

To think three or four per cent who put Truss top, even of those three, are actually out there.....

[stuttgartershrew]

Dec 23, 2022 20:39:31 GMT 1 northwestman said:

This would be like voting at the end of 1945 for who was the least worst leader from Hitler, Mussolini or Hirohito. Who caused the least carnage?

Is that you Lammy?  And speaking of which, he's not doing too bad with his regular gig on LBC and speaking to the likes of Google, Deloitte and Facebook. Shocked I tell you, shocked; considering Lammy is still MP for Tottenham and should be putting the interests of his constituents above his ability to turn a fast buck.

[kenwood]

Stutty , I think Lammy and Hancock must be related in some way. They both appear to be money grabbing fools but there again there’s a fair few who look to be feathering their own nests in both Houses .
It’s becoming ridiculous , so much so that I reckon there’s every chance of King Charles becoming Pope .
Well, Liz Truss became Prime Minister albeit for a very short time thank God.
I’m now going for a lie down in a very dark room .
Happy New Year to you and yours 👍

[stuttgartershrew]

Dec 29, 2022 12:13:55 GMT 1 kenwood said:

Happy New Year to you and yours 👍

And to you...👍

[northwestman]

www.itv.com/news/2023-01-10/exclusive-boris-johnson-joked-about-most-unsocially-distanced-party-in-the-uk

Boris Johnson joked to Downing Street staff “this is the most unsocially distanced party in the UK right now”, during a boozy Number 10 leaving do, ITV News has revealed in an explosive new podcast on the partygate scandal.

The claim aired on Partygate: The Inside Story brings into fresh doubt Mr Johnson’s long-held position that he was unaware rules had been broken within Number 10 during the pandemic lockdown.

Mr Johnson is still due to appear before a Commons standards committee, which is investigating whether he knowingly misled MPs when he insisted all guidance had been followed at the event. When ITV News put the direct quote to Mr Johnson he did not deny saying it.

The claim is among several damning new revelations aired on the podcast - including an allegation staff deliberately destroyed evidence of partying before the Sue Gray and Met Police investigations, the latter of which would make 10 Downing Street the most law-breaking address in the country during lockdown.

[northwestman]

www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/14/boris-johnson-may-be-building-his-war-chest-but-he-isnt-building-bridges

It has proved fortunate for Boris Johnson that his government chose last year to drop plans to cap how much MPs could make from second jobs outside parliament.

Nine months later, the former prime minister has benefited from more than £2.5m in earnings from speeches, hospitality, free accommodation, gifts and donations to his new company, The Office of Boris Johnson.

His haul in just over four months means he is topping the leaderboard of MPs in terms of both donations and cash from work unrelated to his job in the House of Commons in the last year.

[northwestman]

www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/15/distant-cousin-boris-johnson-acted-credit-guarantor-no-10-sam-blyth

A distant cousin of Boris Johnson acted as a guarantor for a credit facility of up to £800,000 while he was in Downing Street that helped fund his lifestyle.

Johnson benefited from the backing of Sam Blyth, a Canadian millionaire businessman in the education sector, who is a second cousin of the former prime minister’s father, Stanley. He is understood to have had use of the credit facility from February 2021 while in No 10 but did not draw down the full amount.

Johnson and his family are also believed to have stayed in a holiday villa owned by Blyth in the Dominican Republic.

[northwestman]

www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/21/labour-urges-inquiry-of-claim-bbc-chairman-helped-boris-johnson-secure-loan-guarantee

Labour is calling for an investigation after claims that the BBC chair helped Boris Johnson arrange a guarantee on a loan of up to £800,000 weeks before he was recommended for the job by the then prime minister.

The party has written to the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Daniel Greenberg, after a report in the Sunday Times that Tory donor Richard Sharp was involved in talks about financing Johnson when he found himself in financial difficulty in late 2020.

Sharp introduced multimillionaire Canadian businessman Sam Blyth, who had proposed to act as the then PM’s guarantor for a credit facility, to the cabinet secretary, according to the newspaper.

The Sunday Times said Johnson, Sharp and Blyth then had dinner at Chequers before the loan was completed, though they denied the PM’s finances were discussed.

Sharp, a former Goldman Sachs banker, was announced as the government’s choice for the BBC role in January 2021.

[northwestman]

The Lib Dems have responded to the statement to MPs by the Cabinet Office’s permanent secretary Alex Chisholm that the government expects to pay up to £222,000 in legal fees to help Boris Johnson defend himself against claims he misled parliament over Partygate.

The Lib Dem chief whip, Wendy Chamberlain, described the news as a “sleazy new low” for the government and called for taxpayer support for Johnson’s legal fees to end.

She said:

While the British people battle with a cost-of-living crisis, this Conservative Government seems more interested in helping Boris Johnson with his cost-of-lying crisis. This is a sleazy new low for this government, dragging politics into the gutter.

People will be outraged that hundreds of thousands of pounds of their money will be used to defend a lying lawbreaker who disgraced the office of prime minister.

The Guardian.

The government are p**sing on us and asking us to pay for the privilege.

I think this is what is meant by trickle down economics.

[staffordshrew]

Once old Boris managed to con the public at the last election, they seemed to think that they could get away with anything and have tested that to the max. Now, as it looks like their chances are shot for the next election, no outrage is too much for them.

[wookeywombat]

Reputedly been paid £500,000 in advance for his autobiography, so easily able to afford the cost himself.

[Deleted]

Jan 26, 2023 23:42:59 GMT 1 wookeywombat said:

Reputedly been paid £500,000 in advance for his autobiography, so easily able to afford the cost himself.

Why would he want to spend his own money when us taxpayers are prepared to find him?

[davycrockett]

Jan 26, 2023 22:25:23 GMT 1 staffordshrew said:

Once old Boris managed to con the public at the last election, they seemed to think that they could get away with anything and have tested that to the max. Now, as it looks like their chances are shot for the next election, no outrage is too much for them.

Not so sure. A couple of hundred thousand to ‘clear’ his name would allow him to lead the next Tory campaign. The populous are likely to fall for his lies and misinformation again and must be their only chance of improving their standings….