I can’t see how Boris deliberately broke rules

SO, Mark Harper, Conservative MP for the Forest of Dean and former Chief Whip, is calling for the PM’s head on a platter because of the Downing Street birthday cake incident.

Mr Johnson has apologised profusely over the event but there are thousands of people in offices throughout the land who are regularly presented with a cake to celebrate a birthday. What was he expected to do at such a surprise presentation? Throw it at the donor and run screaming out of the Cabinet Office shouting: ‘Go away – this is a set-up and it’s illegal’.

Of course not, he would accept it graciously like any normal human being, but in this case he left it untouched. I fail to see how this was deliberately breaking the rules.

Ask yourself this, Mr Harper. How many of your fellow MPs broke the rules and deliberately lied about their past Parliamentary expenses and got away with blatantly robbing the taxpayers? Any sort of embezzlement or robbing your employer in the private sector would more often than not lead to dismissal.

MPs are supposed to set an example, so this, Mr Harper, looks like a serious case of ‘the pot calling the kettle black’ – if I’m allowed to use such a phrase in these politically correct times.

When Mr Blair lied to the House about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, costing the lives of hundreds of our own servicemen as a result, we didn’t hear many of your fellow MPs calling for his resignation and that was a far more serious matter.

Mr Johnson won the last election for the Conservatives and voters were attracted to vote for him, warts and all, because of his charisma, and there are few in the Cabinet who have the quality and personality to be his successor at this time.

So be careful what you wish for, Mr Harper. To misquote Shakespeare, ‘Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.’ The jury might be out on Mr Johnson on this one at the moment, but it’s definitely one of these.

But just remember, Mr Harper, most voters invariably vote for the party with the best leader first and not necessarily for the candidate on the ballot paper. And if you want proof of this, just ask Dennis Skinner, the popular and colourful former Labour MP for Bolsover, who lost his seat at the last election after decades as a well-loved and admired constituency MP.

Edward Kynaston Lydney, Gloucestershire