Boris johnson

Last night politicians and celebrities dined with the super-rich at the annual Tory Black and White ball. While press are banned from the event, Mr S managed to infiltrate the lavish do and bring readers a live-blog of the event. Alas the evening saw a downturn in David Cameron’s fortunes as his donors failed to dig as deep at the auction as in previous years. Despite this the guests appeared to have a good time. Charlie Mullins — the founder of Pimlico Plumbers — says Cameron used his speech to lead from the front on Europe before urging everyone to rally around Zac Goldsmith for London mayor; ‘urging everyone to get out there and

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/fightingovercrumbs-euroscepticsandtheeudeal/media.mp3″ title=”James Forsyth and Vote Leave’s Stephen Parkinson discuss Euroscepticsm”] They may not be allowed to speak out yet, but everyone is trying to find out what senior eurosceptic Tories really think about David Cameron’s EU renegotiation deal and whether they’ll vote to leave. For some Cabinet ministers like Michael Gove, this decision is balanced as much on his personal loyalty to David Cameron as it is on his own beliefs about Europe. For others, there’s what happens to their careers after the vote to think about.  Boris Johnson is blissfully free from Cabinet collective responsibility and from having to worry too much about whether he’ll get promoted in

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/fightingovercrumbs-euroscepticsandtheeudeal/media.mp3″ title=”James Forsyth and Vote Leave’s Stephen Parkinson discuss Euroscepticsm”] The Leave campaigns continue to bicker with each other in increasingly absurd fashion, but it would be wrong to think that everything is going the In campaign’s way. Number 10, as I write in The Sun today, have been taken aback by the sheer scale of the hostility to the deal. There have been some very tense meetings in Downing Street this week. Cameron himself is, I understand, acutely aware of how volatile the situation is and how quickly the referendum could turn. But those around him are more confident. They believe that they are succeeding in denying the

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/fightingovercrumbs-euroscepticsandtheeudeal/media.mp3″ title=”James Forsyth and Vote Leave’s Stephen Parkinson discuss Euroscepticsm”] The great confrontation between David Cameron and Eurosceptic Tory backbenchers did not materialise today. Instead, the tone of the questions following the Prime Minister’s statement was strikingly civil. Edward Leigh thanked Cameron for the fact that there was going to be a referendum, Steve Baker paid tribute to his negotiating effort and Peter Bone tried to recruit him to the Out side. Jacob Rees-Mogg, though, was more critical. He complained that the ‘thin gruel had been watered down’ still further and warned Cameron he had a fortnight to save his reputation as a negotiator. Perhaps the most significant moment

Haven’t had a chance to follow the day’s political events and interviews? Then don’t worry: here, The Spectator, brings you the best of today’s audio clips in one place for you to listen to. David Cameron gave his reaction following the publication of Donald Tusk’s proposals for Britain’s renegotiation with the EU. Speaking to a Siemens factory in Chippenham after skipping going to Parliament, the PM told workers: ‘If I could get these terms for British membership, I sure would opt in’ Given the PM’s absence in the Commons, it did not take long for Eurosceptics to pile in and attack the draft document. Steve Baker offered the most colourful

Although David Cameron has said he will allow ministers a free vote on the EU referendum, only a handful of cabinet ministers have so far taken the plunge and declared themselves to be ‘Outers’. While Boris Johnson had at one point been tipped to lead the Out campaign, the Mayor of London has remained rather quiet on the matter of late. However, if his family’s movements are anything to go by, he may well be preparing to get behind the Prime Minister on the matter. This week two members of the Johnson clan have suggested that they wish to remain in the EU. First, Jo Johnson — the Minister for Universities and Science — indicated in an article

That’s it. The nanny state has won. The nudgers and naggers are victorious. The buzzkilling, behaviour-policing new elite that sees smoking as sinful, boozing as lethal and being podgy as immoral has conquered the political sphere. Its miserabilist writ now extends even into a political zone where once it held no sway: Boris Johnson’s brain. Yes, the once nanny-slating mind that lurks beneath that world-famous mop of self-consciously untidy blonde hair has sadly succumbed to the instinct to harangue people for being fat and having fun. Yesterday Boris announced that he is introducing a sugar tax at City Hall, hiking up the price of all sugar-added soft drinks by 10p

David Cameron might have announced this week that Cabinet Ministers will be allowed to campaign for Out come the EU referendum. But Downing Street is doing what it can to limit how many ministers take up this offer. At the moment, the consensus view around the Cabinet table is that four Cabinet Ministers are going to be for Out—Chris Grayling, Theresa Villiers, John Whittingdale and IDS—with another—Priti Patel—highly likely to. As I say in The Sun today, if Cameron can keep the number of Cabinet Outers down to four or five, Number 10 will be delighted. Cameron will be able to say that the vast majority of the Cabinet support

Liam Fox’s new year party at the Carlton Club has become the traditional start to the Tory Party’s year. This year there were 11 Cabinet members including the Chancellor, Home Secretary, Defence Secretary, Business Secretary and Boris Johnson. I’d say that most of the Tory MPs there are ‘leavers’, who have this week been given permission to campaign freely against a ‘remain’ campaign expected to be led by the Prime Minister.  So in this way, the old Tory wars are about to start again. I look at this in my Daily Telegraph column today. This is not Eurosceptic vs Europhile. This will be a battle between Eurosceptics: the ones who think

Now that former Central Office favourite Mark Clarke has been banned for life from the Conservative party, he could pursue a career in copy-writing. He seems to have a twisted aptitude for that sort of thing. When leading the Tories’ general election RoadTrip 2015 of young activists, many of them peachy girls, Mr Clarke was said to have had the slogan ‘Isolate, inebriate and penetrate’. Though he denies the bon mot, his approach was apparently wildly successful — which is more than can be said for his attempts to land a parliamentary seat. Several women, including at least one serving cabinet minister, fell for this plausible smarmer over the years. Mr

Faced with the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn one day becoming Prime Minister, Lord Sugar said that if elected, we should all move to China. Strong words from the Apprentice star — who quit the Labour Party after the election over its ‘negative’ stance on business, yet he doesn’t seem all that happy with Britain under Tory rule either. Today Sugar told the Mayor of London that he needed a ‘whack’ after the millionaire businessman found himself stuck in traffic. ‘I have been sitting in Lower Thames st for a bloody hour,’ he moaned in a tweet directed at Boris Johnson. ‘What a bloody joke, it’s getting worse.’ It’s thought that the delay was

Thank God for Mary Beard. Sure, she’s wrong about Jeremy Corbyn. She was wrong about 9/11. She’s wrong about plenty. But let’s talk about what matters. She’s right about Ancient Rome. It’s rare to see Boris Johnson lose a popular vote. Last night, Beard trounced him at the Intelligence Squared Greece vs Rome debate, winning the day for Rome with a 9% swing. This was also a fundraiser for one of the most worthy educational charities I know: Classics for All encourages access to ‘elite’ classical subjects in state schools, teaching teens that you don’t have to be Bullingdon material to ‘get’ Boethius. So there was something uncomfortable, not just