Allegra Stratton joins a long list of those sacrificed to Boris Johnson’s chaos

Congratulations Boris and Carrie Johnson on the birth of your baby. Though I must admit Prime Minister, I say this through somewhat gritted teeth. Across London is another mother and wife, whose career in Westminster is over, thrown by you to the wolves. And her crime? Your loyal advisor Allegra Stratton didn’t attend that party, went home to her children, and a few days later wisely rehearsed a relevant line of questioning, anxiously laughing.

She joins a long line of those sacrificed to the chaos that has marked our PM’s personal and political life. As we coo over cute baby pictures outside Number 10, what of the other women and children he’s moved on from? In Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light, the Spanish ambassador asks Cromwell: ‘What will you do, when the king turns on you, as sooner or later he turns on everyone close to him?’ Is there anyone in the Cabinet, apart from Nadine Dorries and Priti Patel, who remain loyal after another self-inflicted debacle? As for the polls, they are showing little approval.

It is the sheer incompetence in the handling of each crisis that’s really cutting through. And this calamity came with a video, which was then then multiplied in the minds of millions of voters by more videos of heartbroken family members talking of dead loved ones. As with Matt Hancock’s demise, visual proof can be a career killer.

On Wednesday Johnson’s Plan B was vilified for putting parties over the workplace and seen as another cynical political ploy to distract from the lies and videotape. Perception matters and Johnson’s credibility this week lies in tatters.

Who really buys he didn’t know there had been a party? Allegra was in the inner circle (she had recently despatched Dominic Cummings with the help of one Carrie Johnson). Now it looks like his own communications director Jack Doyle attended it and gave out mock awards, which has serious ramifications. An apology early and Doyle’s resignation would have cauterised what is now a gaping wound... And what about the other parties, even one in his flat?

Truth denial is his default mode (plenty of practise in his personal life I suppose). Deny a donor paid for the wallpaper. Deny Owen Paterson did any lobbying, then send out the Cabinet to defend this lie. Deny prioritising animals over people in evacuating from Afghanistan. On top, change the rules when it suits: prorogue Parliament when it blocks you; go after the judiciary when it rules in ways you don’t like; try to cancel the Parliamentary Commission because it doesn’t believe your mate.

And now the Conservative Party is being fined £17,800 by the Electoral Commission over the donation by Lord Brownlow to help cover the lavish renovations of Johnson’s flat. Very murky water to challenge the reputation of this government. The Commission is at odds with the earlier findings of Lord Christopher Geidt, who was hired by Boris Johnson in April 2021 as the new Independent Advisor on MP Standards (the previous incumbent, Alex Allen, quit after Boris over-ruled his findings on Priti Patel’s bullying). Yet in May, Geidt accepted at face value the Prime Minister’s claim - or lie - that he had not personally asked for more funds, despite a WhatsApp seen by the Commission by the PM to Brownlow on November 29 asking to him to authorise cash for further refurbishment works. I hazard Geidt will soon resign. You see the pattern here? Join Johnson and you soon get tainted.

When will it finally topple him? This could be close. Will Brownlow now talk? Can the PM really defend the claim he thought it a ‘blind’ trust? But despite the Tory Party’s history for ruthlessly despatching its own, it’s rarely a quick manoeuvre. Look how long it took for the Party to overthrow Theresa May, and that was with the ERG faction and Johnson endlessly troublemaking. Nothing like that kind of interior opposition today. Enemies and inheritors to the crown are hovering; Liz Truss has been on her own election trail for months.

If he makes it to next year, it’s not going to get any easier. Omicron means more economic damage. Put simply, less money coming in, more money going out. And there’s a chance our vaccines can’t ride to the rescue this time. Real incomes are set to fall, new taxes will hit wallets hard come April, and as PM he is heading into this perfect storm with far less political capital. Still, governments can often ride low in mid-term polls and go onto to win an election. Labour is gaining momentum but has yet to quite convince. So, when he goes remains an open question. But Johnson does not need many more outside enemies, he’s more than enough of his own.

Truss needs to lose the empire state of mind

AS most small business owners woke yesterday with serious worries at home, the current Tory favourite Liz Truss, below, talked up the UK’s global future (and her own) at the Chatham House foreign policy institute in central London, describing Britain as the “greatest country in the world”.

She went on to say that “fashionable circles” (“fashionable circles”?! What century is she from?) like to talk down both the UK’s future and our proud imperial history. If Truss is serious about one day being prime minister, I for one want to hear less box-ticking for the weird inner cabal of the tiny Tory party membership and a bit more of her own vision that might one day unite a whole country. Despite her personal charm and photogenic appeal (now outdoing our Chancellor as social media political influencer), she needs to start demonstrating far more personal and political authenticity for a broad audience of voters to back her. Not a patchwork quilt of anti-woke chatter, patriotism, and reminders of Empire, matched with barely concealed ambition. That’s what we’ve got now. And he is hardly faring well.

Sex and the City is doomed without Kim

The new Sex and the City is apparently every reviewer’s delight — in that it’s a laughable disaster. But are any of us surprised? The last film outing for our once fabulous four was dreary and ridiculous. And this time around, four becomes three with loss of our favourite deliverer of the dirty one liner, the statuesque Samantha. Played by Kim Cattrall, she smartly adhered to Plan B and stayed closer to home.