The selfie that shames Boris AND his lover
THE picture of blonde, lipsticked Jennifer Arcuri with a self- satisfied and slightly sneering expression on her face that was splashed over the papers this week made me absolutely furious with both her and Boris.
The photo is a selfie, which Arcuri says was taken in the kitchen of the home Johnson shared with his wife and children. Two glasses of red wine are prominently displayed on the table where, no doubt, the next morning there would be a gathering of family for breakfast.
What sort of a man invites his lover to the very centre of his house, knowing he’ll have to get her out before his wife gets back?
Well, according to Allegra Stratton, the Prime Minister’s new Press secretary, a man who ‘acts with integrity and is honest’.
Really? I had thought that Stratton would be good news when she began to handle the White house- style Press conferences in Downing Street. She’s an admirable journalist, but her first memorable statement is eyebrow-raising to say the least. Gosh, those words must have stuck in her throat.
Back to that ghastly picture. It now transpires — surprise, surprise — it wasn’t taken to commemorate a quick drink between friends or business associates.
Arcuri had long denied the two of them had an affair, but we now know they had sex on a sofa while his wife was at work, because Arcuri told us so, and she pointed out that she left only minutes before Boris’ wife Marina Wheeler returned from her office. Apparently, Boris had sent a text reassuring his mistress that he wanted to ‘ check the coast is gonna be clear’ before sending her the address of his Islington home.
So, here we are, criticising teenage boys for their inappropriate behaviour towards women and girls — which is sometimes criminal, but also often just crass and boorish — only to discover the Prime Minister, during his time as Mayor of London, was acting appallingly.
There’s more. According to Arcuri, she sent him a raunchy photo which he said was ‘enough WhAT to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window’.
is she up to? Why is she revealing such details of how hot her lover thought her? Did it not occur to her that it might add to the humiliation of his former wife? What a cheap way to behave.
As I read the details of the affair — which lasted from 2012 to 2016 — I couldn’t help screeching ‘too much information’ as stories of reciting Macbeth as a strange kind of foreplay, his hand on her knee as he tried to persuade her to take him home with her, the constant sexy texting, even while he was on mayoral duty, all jumped off the page.
The former mayor, who is now Prime Minister, faces an investigation by the Greater London Authority to establish whether he breached the mayoral code of conduct by failing to declare the relationship.
There’s also the question of why Arcuri had accompanied him on three overseas trade trips and somehow pocketed £126,000 of public money for her business.
Stratton stepped in again on that question, claiming he ‘followed all legal requirements’ as mayor as well as the principles requiring our politicians to behave with honesty, integrity and openness.
But, how was he open and honest? And is there not a legal duty a husband owes to his wife to be faithful and true and not risk the misery she would suffer at the fury of a flighty, angry and disappointed woman with easy access to the Press?
I wish I could say I was shocked and surprised at the behaviour described by the pole- dancing Arcuri, but I’m really not.
Boris has form in his sexual shenanigans, but there’s definitely a lesson to be learned from all this. he is fond of trotting out famous quotations, but he was unwise to ignore, ‘Be sure thy sin will find thee out’ and, ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’.