Boris johnson

One of the consequences of Theresa May’s disastrous election campaign is that the balance of power has swung firmly away from the PM towards her Cabinet. This change of fortunes means that ministers can now speak their minds freely in a way that would have been foolhardy just a few weeks ago. Boris Johnson is the latest to make the most of this new found freedom, saying it is time to end the cap on public sector pay. The Foreign Secretary is said to support a pay rise for such workers, and thinks this could be done in a ‘a responsible way’ without raising taxes.

Oh dear. Although Theresa May has managed to make it through the Queen's Speech today, the real test will come next week when MPs vote on it. With the Prime Minister's authority already weak, talk has turned to who will be her eventual successor. So, it was a helpful coincidence that the frontrunner to be the next Tory leader just so happened to be doing the press rounds today. Boris Johnson appeared on Radio 4, where he was interviewed by Eddie Mair on his party's sparse legislative plans for the next two years. Unfortunately for Johnson, the interview did not go to plan. Asked how his party's plan would help deal with the 'burning injustices' in the UK, the Foreign Secretary bumbled and blustered.

Theresa May has granted herself a brief reprieve by saying ‘sorry’ to Conservative MPs. But while the Prime Minister’s apology won her some breathing space, in the long term little has changed: the PM’s Downing Street days are numbered. Who could be next in line to take over as the new Tory leader? Boris Johnson Boris remains the bookies’ favourite despite being badly bruised by last year’s bungled bid for the top job. The Foreign Secretary has thrown his weight behind May for now. It’s difficult though to ignore George Osborne’s assessment that Boris is in a ‘permanent leadership campaign’.

Boris’s last appearance on the airwaves during the election campaign left many scratching their heads. Just what did the word 'mugwump’ actually mean? This time, the Foreign Secretary’s attack against Jeremy Corbyn was much more straightforward: the Labour leader's opposition to the ‘shoot to kill’ policy. Here, Corbyn has undoubtedly changed his tune: in 2015, he said he wasn’t happy with the idea; and last year, he said that he hadn’t changed his mind. In the wake of the London attack though, Corbyn backed officers being able to use lethal force in certain situations.

We were in a detention centre for migrants in Tripoli and we came to a big locked door. It was impressively bolted and padlocked. Someone murmured that we didn’t have time to look inside. But I felt somehow obliged to do so. Outside in the sun I had already said hello to about 100 migrants — almost all of them from West Africa: Guinea-Conakry and Nigeria. They were sitting on the concrete in rows, their heads in their hands; the men in one group, and about half a dozen women a little way off. They had been here for months, in some cases, and they wanted to go home. Kwasi Kwarteng and Kim Sengupta consider the future of Libya: ‘J’ai faim,’ said one of the men. ‘C’est pas bon ici,’ said another.

'Mugwumps' are in the news today, after Boris Johnson used the term to describe Jeremy Corbyn. In the 2 October 1959 issue of The Spectator, Evelyn Waugh also used the term, when he wrote a piece entitled 'Aspirations of a Mugwump':  I hope to see the Conservative Party return with a substantial majority. I have bitter memories of the Attlee-Cripps regime when the kingdom seemed to be under enemy occupation. I recognise that individually some of the Liberal candidates are more worthy than many of the Conservatives, but any advantage to them can only produce deplorable instability. I have met, seen or heard very few leading politicians; of those I know the Conservatives seem altogether more competent than their opponents.

Boris Johnson has received a bit of a kicking this week. There have been no shortage of people wanting to say he has been humiliated by the G7’s refusal to back his call for further sanctions on Russia and Syria after the chemical weapons attack. But I argue in The Sun today, that the real story is the weakness of the EU members of the G7. To be sure, Boris got too far forward on his skis on sanctions. But the bigger issue, by far, is the weakness of those members of the G7 who wouldn’t back them: principally, Italy and Germany. Lenin used to say “Probe with a bayonet; if you meet steel, stop! If you meet mush, then push.” This is, pretty much, Putin’s approach. So, Europe’s unwillingness to push back will embolden him.