Get back on the bridge Boris, and be a Tory

IT IS very good news that Boris Johnson has taken a firm grip of Downing Street. By bringing in trusted and experienced allies and creating what is in effect a Prime Minister’s Department, he has acted to deal with most of the problems that beset him.

He needs several things right now. He needs an office that serves him and serves the country, staffed by experienced and qualified people ready to give him impartial and responsible advice. He also needs a loyal staff who are there to work for the most important part of the Government and who take their tasks and their responsibilities seriously.

To put it politely, he has not really had such an establishment until now. Some Downing Street staff plainly have not realised that their high and exposed position requires pretty stern rectitude, rather than ‘Bring Your Own Booze’ parties.

All that now ends for good.

The appointment of Guto Harri, an experienced journalist who served Mr Johnson well in his days as

London Mayor, is a return of good sense and a recognition by the Prime Minister that a steady hand and a real knowledge of the world is worth two tons of flashy theorising.

Mr Harri is quite capable of criticising the Premier to his face, and of heading off foolish ideas.

As we see from the allegations in Lord Ashcroft’s book on Mr Johnson’s wife, Carrie, which The Mail on

Sunday serialises today, No 10 badly needs a period of disciplined calm.

As he gets the ship of state on an even keel again, the Premier might do well to make it clear that he is back on the bridge and there is only one captain – and that captain is a Conservative.

Perhaps he might hoist a signal to tell his not-very-loyal Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, that the planned National Insurance rise in April will be scrapped.