Steerpike

Oh dear. It's been another awful afternoon for Boris Johnson. First, Munira Mirza, the head of his No. 10 policy unit, resigned over Johnson's claims about Sir Keir Starmer's involvement in the Jimmy Savile case. And now, Jack Doyle, his long-suffering director of communications, has just handed in his notice after two torrid months dealing with the fall out of partygate. Doyle joined No. 10 as the PM's press secretary in 2020 from the Daily Mail and has served as comms chief since taking over from James Slack in April 2021. He leaves the role after a mere 10 months in post, having told friends he always planned to leave after two years.

It's not been a great few months for Matt Hancock. Every time the Casanova of the Commons tries to make a comeback, nothing seems to go his way. First, HarperCollins dismissed speculation that they would be publishing his self-justificatory book; then he faced mockery for his turtleneck outfit at the Capital Jingle Bell Ball. Even efforts to flaunt his sexual appeal came to nought after indignant Serpentine members slapped him down for swimming in their pool while a photographer snapped him topless. And now Steerpike can reveal that there's still been no luck as to finding the perpetrators who leaked highly-sensitive images of Hancock in a passionate embrace back in June 2021.

Boris Johnson doesn’t even like parties, by all accounts. He prefers to be left alone with women. Yet parties are killing him. His premiership seems horribly stuck in the news huis clos that is partygate: every time he thinks he’s out, those rule-breaking sessions in Downing Street pull him back in. His various stratagems aren’t working. The kicking-the-can ‘wait for Sue Gray’ approach only drags the crisis on. The sabre-waving at Putin over Ukraine isn’t doing much either. It’s all a bit complicated. The media and (let’s admit it) quite a lot of the public would rather gawp at party photographs and talk about how much we, the people who didn’t make the rules, sacrificed while they, the people who did, lived it large.

The release of Sue Gray's summary into the No. 10 parties has meant Boris Johnson is up before the Commons this afternoon, to give his reply. In classic Johnson style, he blustered his way through it, claiming it qas an opportunity to rewire the wiring of Whitehall and create a new 'Office of the Prime Minister.' But while Johnson suffered from Sir Keir Starmer's attacks on his integrity, it was Theresa May's intervention which proved to be one of the most wounding.  The former Prime Minister was clearly itching in the House to intervene, removing her mask as soon as she got the nod from Lindsay Hoyle.

The current impotence of the Prime Minister can be measured in many forms. But one of them is just how few Cabinet ministers are willing to go out and give Boris Johnson their full-throated support on various media platforms.  It’s telling that of the 30 or so ministers attending Cabinet, only two seem to be shouldering most of the responsibility: Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nadine Dorries. But while Mogg tends to focus his energies on traditional broadcasters, Dorries prefers taking to Twitter to proclaim her loyalty and decry the waverers. Unfortunately, the recently-appointed Culture Secretary appears to be embracing her social media brief a little too enthusiastically.

Roll up, roll up: the biggest prize in political journalism is up for grabs. Laura Kuenssberg is stepping down as BBC political editor after more than six-and-a-half years, which means a bun fight over who gets to replace her. Highly-rated internal candidates include Jon Sopel and Alex Forsyth, after the favourite, Kuenssberg's deputy Vicki Young, ruled herself out of the race. The job advert went live six hours ago so Mr S has been taking a dive into what the corporation wants from its political editor in 2022. Scoop-getting is clearly top of the bill, with the Beeb demanding 'a strong track record of breaking stories first' and 'an extensive contacts book at the most senior level of government.

Polls might show that two in three voters think Boris Johnson should quit over No. 10's parties but crucially less than 15 per cent of Tory MPs share that opinion. And, as Westminster awaits the release of Sue Gray's report, it's clear that there are still plenty of backbenchers willing to go out on the airwaves to put their necks on the line. Let the bodies pile high, indeed. Unfortunately, given the number of alleged gatherings and the speed with which details have emerged, some long-suffering Tories have been left looking slightly ridiculous when trying to defend their beleaguered PM. That has been particularly difficult since Monday when ITV reported up to 30 people brought a cake along to mark Boris Johnson's 56th birthday in June 2020.