BIG BEAST BOJO IS NOT AMUSED
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
ORAL Questions [in the Commons]. There have been reports about the discovery of the fossilised remains of an enormous woolly mammoth. During one answer, I quip that the Foreign Secretary is living proof that the woolly mammoth can return from extinction.
Boris was not amused. Ridiculous. It was light-hearted and affectionate, so what’s the problem? Chill!
To Vienna. When I land, [there’s] a series of texts saying I had better contact Boris about the woolly mammoth. What on earth is all the fuss about? It was fun and harmless.
It’s all because he is in a frightful stew about [FCO minister Tobias] Ellwood who failed to answer a topical question on which he had been extensively briefed, leaving Boris to reply with no understanding of either the question or the answer. I have just been caught up in the slipstream.
Wednesday, June 21
THE Telegraph has run a piece which takes a quote by me [in a documentary] rather out of context suggesting I have publicly told Boris Johnson to ‘stop playing games’ in respect of any future leadership race.
It is of course semantic exaggeration, but [Boris] phones at 8am to suggest I pen a letter to the paper to correct the record.
It is an absurd suggestion, as it will only give the issue more legs. It is only on page 7, at the bottom. He loves doublepage spreads puffing him up, but is over-sensitive and loses all perspective when he faces an inch of adverse comment.
I was due to be announced by him in the FCO as the ‘Senior Minister of State’, but he has binned the idea following the Telegraph story. So petty.
He is an egotistical showman who just doesn’t understand Parliament, or how to run and motivate a team around him.
Tuesday, August 29
THERE is an article tagging Boris as an ‘international joke’ and [reporting] that ‘civil servants in the Foreign Office are horrified by their boss’s lack of discipline and have taken to slipping in to see his deputy Sir Alan Duncan when they need a decision’. Boris calls. He wants to see me. For the first time ever, we have something of a stand-up confrontation. He has completely popped and accuses me of briefing [the journalist], which I hadn’t. He says, ‘Why do you say they don’t take me seriously?’ I shake my head and say, ‘Just look in the f***ing mirror!’