Boris’s love life may block route to No 10
ANY bid by Boris Johnson to become Tory leader could ‘fall apart’ because of his colourful love life, it has been claimed.
He may not survive questions over his ‘various romantic dealings and possible children that might have been the result’, according to Fraser Nelson, editor of The Spectator magazine, which is known as the ‘Tory bible’.
The comments were made after Mr Nelson hosted The Spectator’s summer champagne party in Westminster on Thursday. He said the event turned into a ‘shadow leadership campaign’, with the warring Tory ‘tribes staring at each other trying to work out the line of attack’.
Three of the main contenders to succeed Mrs May – Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson, Brexit Secretary David Davis and Home Secretary Amber Rudd – and their respective cheerleaders warily eyed each other up. The air was thick with dark talk of dirty tricks, sex smears and other political scandals and intrigue.
Speaking after chatting at the party to Mr Johnson, a former editor of The Spectator, Mr Nelson questioned whether the Foreign Secretary would survive a leadership contest.
He could be ‘exposed’ in the same way that Lib Dem leader Tim Farron was forced to resign this year over his views on gay sex, and John Kerry’s 2004 US presidential campaign collapsed after his Vietnam War record was challenged, argued Mr Nelson.
His remarks coincided with an unrelated report in The Sun newspaper yesterday that claimed an ally of Mr Davis tried to ‘smear’ Mr Johnson with a bogus claim of an affair with a former female aide to Mrs May.
Mr Nelson said Mr Kerry and Mr Farron both learned the hard way that ‘when an Election starts, you get a whole new level of scrutiny – and that’s when you fall apart.’
He added: ‘It is relevant because Boris has been in public life a long time without anybody asking too harsh questions about his various romantic dealings and possible children that might have been the result of that.
‘The question is, if he were to be leader, would he be subjected to questions on that vein that he hadn’t been before?’ It was ‘well established in politics’ that party leaders in Election campaigns could not escape such interrogation. ‘Farron and Kerry found that out – a lot of party leaders don’t bear it in mind.’
Mr Farron ‘probably thought he had made it for so many years without anyone caring what he thought about gay sex’ that he could avoid tough questions in the Election. Devout Christian Mr Farron’s campaign never recovered after it emerged he had said he believed gay sex was a sin.
In 2009, married father-of-four Mr Johnson fathered a daughter after an affair with arts consultant Helen Macintyre, prompting Mr Johnson’s QC wife Marina to throw him out of their house.
Five years earlier he was fired as a Tory frontbencher after lying over an affair with writer and socialite Petronella Wyatt that resulted in her having an abortion. He famously – and falsely – called the allegation an ‘inverted pyramid of piffle’.
Ms Wyatt was also at Thursday’s Spectator party.
During last year’s referendum campaign, The Sun claimed Mr Johnson’s wife was the victim of a separate bogus sex smear spread by anti-Brexit supporters.
The tensions between Mr Davis and Mr Johnson surfaced with reports of a row after Mr Davis was photographed being kissed by the
‘The tribes are working out their line of attack’
Foreign Secretary’s sister, Mail on Sunday columnist Rachel Johnson. Mr Johnson yesterday denied rowing with her at the party over the incident.
Mr Davis’s ally, ‘Plebgate’ ex-Minister Andrew Mitchell, was also at the party, leading to some guests accusing them of ‘blatant campaigning’ by their conduct.
Mr Nelson said he heard a supporter of one Tory hopeful ‘cursing Davis with incredible ferocity, saying, “This man’s done nothing, how can he be leader of this Party?” That sort of thing was going on a lot.’