More woe for PM as lunch at son’s haunt is marred by fellow diners
HE WAS unflustered when he and his wife were jeered outside St Paul’s Cathedral at the Queen’s Jubilee Thanksgiving Service on Friday.
But it seems that Boris Johnson is less relaxed about those who interrupt his lunch when he manages to get out of his office at No10.
It happened when the Prime Minister made a Friday lunchtime visit to Morito, a trendy tapas and mezze restaurant in East London where his son Theo was working.
Mr Johnson was playing the supportive dad, enjoying a hearty meal during a break from his official duties. ‘Boris had a nice lunch,’ my source tells me. But his restful meal was disturbed by heckles from fellow diners, I can reveal.
The PM responded with a dismissive hand gesture and left the establishment. ‘He flicked his finger at the customers when he got booed,’ my source tells me. ‘It was horrible, it just created a nasty atmosphere.’
Morito, which opened on Hackney Road in 2016, serves Spanish and North African cuisine along with ‘a concise offering of wines from the Mediterranean’. There is often live music and the venue boasts a cosy cellar bar. Vogue has described Morito as ‘a holiday without leaving Zone 2’ – a reference to areas of inner London served by the Tube.
Theo, 22, who shares his father’s distinctive shock of blond hair, no longer works at the restaurant. He left shortly after Boris’s visit, though this is thought to be unrelated.
He was by all accounts a popular member of the team, and has apparently embraced his family’s fame before. When Theo – who uses both his parents’ surnames, going professionally as Theodore Johnson Wheeler – was at Cambridge, he reportedly penned a play about the Brexit referendum and his dad’s role in the campaign.
Even so, the booing must have made things a little awkward in the kitchen.
Theo was approached for comment. Downing Street declined to comment.