Adam Boulton: Long Johnson is still plaguing the Tories – Sunak needs to take decisive action
Those worried about the health of British politics have diagnosed a new disease at Westminster.
Chris Patten, a grandee from the Conservative establishment, spotted what he called “Long Boris” last summer.
Weeks after Boris Johnson announced his resignation as prime minister, Lord Patten, a former party chairman and former BBC chairman, lamented the persistent “corrupting and debilitating impact of Johnson’s premiership on British politics and government.”
As with ‘SARS-Covid-19’ there was some debate as to how the condition should be named in general conversation.
Eventually, “Long Johnson” was settled on rather than the more familiar “Long Boris”.
The commentator Paul Waugh listed some of the symptoms of Long Johnson he saw in the bloodstream of the Conservative party: “A debilitating condition that led it to lose its sense of taste, decency and direction.”
Long Johnson hit fever pitch with the Conservative party’s short-lived collective decision to select Johnson’s preferred candidate, Liz Truss, as the next prime minister. That quickly burnt itself out.
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On taking office Rishi Sunak tried to shake off Long Johnson by promising that his government would be one of “integrity, professionalism and accountability” at all times. It is not proving so easy for the new prime minister to escape unwanted legacies from his predecessor-but-one.
Questions of probity over two men who were promoted by Johnson, Nadhim Zahawi and Richard Sharp, have combined to create the biggest political crisis of Sunak’s short premiership.
According to Raphael Behr, political columnist on The Guardian, the “Zahawi episode is a symptom of Long Johnson, the chronic, recurrent, debilitation of government by a pathogen that still circulates in the ruling party long after the original infection has been treated”.
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Analysis: Labour says PM ‘too weak’
The embarrassments Sunak is grappling with are debilitating hangovers from the Johnson era, so is the fumbling way the prime minister is dealing with them.
Nadhim Zahawi had the reputation at Westminster of a comparatively competent and personable minister, one of those credited with the successful roll-out of the vaccine programme. But as often with politicians who become conspicuously wealthy there was much gossip about his finances.
His wealth was generated as a co-founder of the polling company YouGov before he became an MP.
Scrutiny of Zahawi’s finances sharpened when he became Chancellor of the Exchequer, the politician responsible for the nation’s finances and tax system. In seeking the truth, journalists received what they considered to be aggressive threats of libel from lawyers acting for Zahawi, designed to suppress allegations, some of which have been confirmed as accurate.
It is now known that while he was Chancellor, Zahawi quietly negotiated a tax settlement totalling some £5m, including a penalty of more than £1m, with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for which he was the minister responsible.
Zahawi says his mistake was “careless but not deliberate”. Jim Harra, the head of HMRC, told MPs this week: “There are no penalties for innocent errors in your tax affairs.”
There is no pressing reason why Boris Johnson should have made Zahawi chancellor. Nor does the haste with which the appointment was made suggest that the prime minister or his officials, led by the Cabinet Secretary, had sufficient time for due diligence looking into his suitability for this most sensitive financial post. Yet their green light then effectively gave him a free pass to prominent ministerial ranks under both Truss and Sunak.
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‘Questions need answering’ in Zahawi case
By late last year scrutiny by an honours committee elsewhere in Whitehall reportedly held up a proposed knighthood for Zahawi.
In the past, when serving prime ministers have announced their intention to resign, other ministers have stayed in post until the successor is chosen. He or she then assembles their own cabinet team. This has been so even when threatened ministerial resignations force out a prime minister, as happened to both Tony Blair and Boris Johnson.
Once he announced he was going, Johnson could have said that he was not accepting resignations and that all ministers would stay on in the interim. That is not the way Boris Johnson behaved. He used his dying powers of patronage to settle scores and to try to influence the outcome of the leadership election.
He fired Michael Gove and then he troubled the ailing Queen to appoint an entirely new temporary cabinet for the few weeks of the leadership contest. Johnson promoted Zahawi to the Treasury, thus crucially depriving Rishi Sunak of the status of high office during the leadership battle, while Truss luxuriated in the great office of state of foreign secretary.
Earlier, after Sunak emerged as the person most likely to replace Johnson, he became the subject of damaging leaks about his US Green Card and his wife’s non-dom status. The Metropolitan Police coincidentally tarnished the teetotal Sunak’s reputation, and blunted the impact on Johnson, by issuing them both with fixed penalty notices for breaking COVID regulations at the “ambushed with a cake” Johnson birthday party in the cabinet room.
Sunak experienced the hard way the phenomenon, now hitting Zahawi and Sharp, that friendship with Johnson often has adverse consequences.
Richard Sharp insists that he was appointed the chairman of the BBC on merit after a rigorous selection process. There is no reason to doubt his perspective. When I knew him at university, more than 40 years ago, he was an exceptionally decent and considerate person. He went on to build a highly successful career in finance alongside generous voluntary contributions to public service and charity.
Men with known political affiliations such as Michael Grade, Gavyn Davies and Marmaduke Hussey have been appointed to the BBC chair by other prime ministers. But Boris Johnson made the final decision over Sharp, after he and his allies had previously broken with precedent by conjuring up culture wars and pre-endorsing friends and allies such as Paul Dacre and Charles Moore for top posts in the media, normally viewed as apolitical – unsuccessfully it turned out.
Johnson used his patronage to appoint Peter Cruddas to the House of Lords, someone who had helped him out with his personal finances. Richard Sharp says he “simply connected” people, who then facilitated an undeclared personal £800,000 overdraft guarantee for the prime minister.
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Zahawi should ‘stand aside’
Richard Sharp and cabinet secretary Simon Case may genuinely have decided this was immaterial to Sharp’s BBC application but is that the way Boris Johnson sees things? Several enquiries into Sharp’s appointment are now under way. Johnson’s benefactor Sam Blyth is an old friend of Sharp.
The inquiries will doubtless ascertain whether Boris Johnson knew of this obliging distant cousin’s existence before Sharp introduced him to the cabinet secretary.
Long Johnson is also evident in the way the government is handling these potential scandals.
Quick resignations and moving on are things of the past. Following a pattern which became familiar during the Johnson era, Sunak has presided over, and sometimes joined in, denials that have turned out to be inaccurate, playing for time by calling for further inquiries after awkward facts are established.
Sir Keir Starmer had a two-pronged attack at PMQs: “We all know why the prime minister was reluctant to ask his party chair questions about family finances and tax avoidance, but his failure to sack him, when the whole country can see what is going on, shows how hopelessly weak he is.”
Sizeable minorities in parliament and perhaps even more in the Tory membership are not loyal to Sunak and hanker for a return of Johnson. This limits Sunak’s ability to lead firmly.
With his oblique reference to the great wealth of Sunak’s family, the leader of the opposition went further, implying that the prime minister is really just one of them – sharing similar values, or the absence of them, to Johnson and Zahawi and the same acquisitiveness.
Only urgent decisive action by Sunak can demonstrate that he has beaten the plague of Long Johnson.
Japan’s parliament has voted in the country’s first ever female prime minister.
Sanae Takaichi won 237 votes in the 465-seat lower chamber of parliament, and is also set to secure a majority in the less powerful upper house before being sworn in later today.
Tuesday’s votes came after her Liberal Democratic Party agreed to a coalition with the right-wing Japan Innovation Party yesterday.
The last-minute deal came after the Liberal Democrats lost its longterm partner, the Buddhist-backed Komeito, which has a more centrist stance.
Incumbent prime minister Shigeru Ishiba, of Ms Takaichi’s party, announced his resignation last month.
The new prime minister stands and bows after the vote. Pic: AP
While Ms Takaichi’s election marks the shattering of a glass ceiling for Japan, it also marks a sharp tack to the right.
She is a staunchly conservative figure who cites Margaret Thatcher as an inspiration, and comes to power at a time when the country is increasingly worried about the cost of living and immigration.
Japan is currently grappling with rising prices that have sparked public anger, fuelling support for oppositions groups including the far-right Sanseito party.
Japanese lawmakers electing the new PM at the Lower House of Parliament in Tokyo. Pic: Reuters
Ms Takaichi’s untested alliance is still short of a majority in both houses of parliament and she will need to win over other opposition groups to pass any legislation – which could make her government unstable.
She said at Monday’s signing ceremony: “Political stability is essential right now. Without stability, we cannot push measures for a strong economy or diplomacy.”
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While she is Japan’s first female PM, Ms Takaichi has previously shown she is in no rush to promote gender equality or diversity.
She is among the Japanese politicians who have stonewalled measures for women’s advancements and she supports the imperial family’s male-only succession, while opposing same-sex marriage and allowing separate surnames for married couples.
The UK is ready to spend “well over” £100m on a possible deployment of British forces to Ukraine if Donald Trump secures a peace deal with Russia, the defence secretary has said.
John Healey also said Vladimir Putin views Britain as his “number one enemy” because of the country’s support for Ukraine.
The defence secretary’s plan includes the preparation of military personnel to join a multinational force that would be sent to help secure Ukraine’s borders if the US president brokers a ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv.
He signalled British troops could be ready to deploy as soon as that happened and he said this could include soldiers on the ground.
Some of the anticipated money to prepare for any mission is already being spent.
The defence secretary also warned of a “new era of threat” and said the risk of wider conflict in Europe has not been as great since the end of the Second World War.
Mr Healey used a lecture at Mansion House in London to talk about efforts led by the UK and France to build a “coalition of the willing” of more than 30 nations to form what he called a “Multinational Force Ukraine” over the past six months.
At Mansion House this evening. Pic: PA
This force would help to secure Ukraine’s skies and seas and train its troops if Russia agrees to halt its full-scale war.
“So, as President Trump leads the push for peace here in Europe, we are ready to lead the work to secure it in the long-term,” the defence secretary said.
“For our Armed Forces, I am already reviewing readiness levels and accelerating millions of pounds of funding to prepare for any possible deployment into Ukraine.”
Asked how much money, he said it would be “well over” £100m.
British troops have been instrumental in the training of Ukrainian soliders throughout the conflict at camps like this one in East Anglia.Pic: PA
Mr Healey trumpeted the UK’s support for Ukraine, including a record £4.5bn in assistance this year, and taking over from the United States in co-chairing a wider group of nations that have been sending weapons and money to Kyiv.
“This is why President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy calls the UK his closest ally,” he said.
“This is why Putin ranks Britain as his number one enemy.”
But he warned that as Russia’s aggression grew in Ukraine and beyond its borders, “Britain and our NATO allies stand more unified, and stronger”.
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Vladimir Putin. Pic: Sputnik/Reuters
Giving a stark verdict of the security landscape, Mr Healey said: “This is – undeniably – a new era of threat. The world is more unstable, more uncertain, more dangerous. Not since the end of the Second World War has Europe’s security been at such risk of state-on-state conflict.”
He said this required what he described as “a new era for defence”.
He said: “This is now an age for hard power, strong alliances and sure diplomacy.”
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The defence secretary said plans for the new era would include increasing defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035 – though critics have accused the UK and other European allies of playing smoke and mirrors with the target, questioning how much will really be spent on weapons and troops.
“As I look ahead to the rest of this decade, our task, in this new age of hard power is to secure peace in our continent and to forge stronger deterrence and resilience, a New Deal for European security,” said Mr Healey.
Turning to the Middle East, he also announced the UK was sending a two-star military officer to work as the deputy to the US commander, charged with monitoring the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
A number of “priceless” objects were stolen from the Louvre in Paris, in what has been called the “theft of the decade”.
In broad daylight, thieves broke into the world-famous museum and accessed a gallery containing the French Crown Jewels.
A manhunt for those responsible is currently ongoing, with police facing a “race against time” to retrieve the jewels before they are dismantled.
Here’s all you need to know.
How the heist unfolded
The heist took place at roughly 9.30am (8.30am UK time), half an hour after the Louvre had opened its doors to the public.
The thieves used a crane that was mounted on the back of a small truck to smash an upstairs window and enter the Galerie d’Apollon.
Police officers work by a crane believed to have been used by thieves. Pic: AP
This is an enormous room on the upper floor of the Petite Galerie, which houses the French Crown Jewels as well as the royal collection of hardstone vessels, paintings, tapestries and medallions, the museum’s website says.
The thieves smashed two display cases and fled on motorbikes. No-one was hurt in the incident.
Guards were alerted to the scene by alarms that went off when the cases were smashed, but the thieves had already left.
It is not clear if the gang brought any or all of the equipment they used with them, as construction work is taking place along the River Seine side of the building where the break-in occurred.
The entire theft took between six and seven minutes.
What was stolen?
A total of nine objects were targeted in the heist, and eight were actually stolen. The thieves dropped the ninth one, the crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugenie, during their escape.
Officials have described the stolen items as having “inestimable” historical value.
The following pieces remain missing:
What will happen to the jewellery?
Art detective Arthur Brand described the heist as “the theft of the decade” – adding that in order to recover the “priceless” items, police will need to find the culprits within the week.
“These crown jewels are so famous, you just cannot sell them,” Mr Brand told Sky News. “The only thing they can do is melt the silver and gold down, dismantle the diamonds, try to cut them. That’s the way they will probably disappear forever.”
He continued: “They [the police] have a week. If they catch the thieves, the stuff might still be there. If it takes longer, the loot is probably gone and dismantled. It’s a race against time.”
The tiara (top), necklace (middle) and one earring were taken from the Queen Marie Amelie sapphire set. Pic: Louvre
Tobias Kormind, managing director of Mayfair-based 77 Diamonds, agreed, saying it is “unlikely” the jewels will ever be seen again.
“Professional crews often break down and re-cut large, recognizable stones to evade detection, effectively erasing their provenance,” he said.
Emerald necklace and earrings from the parure of Empress Marie-Louise. Pic: The Louvre
Authorities have said forensic teams are currently reviewing CCTV from the Denon wing and the riverfront of the museum, inspecting the crane used to reach the gallery and interviewing staff who were on site when the museum opened.
Who was behind the heist?
According to French media, there were four perpetrators: two dressed as construction workers in yellow safety vests on the lift, and two others who had a scooter each.
French authorities have not confirmed these details; however, one yellow vest has been recovered from the scene.
Culture Minister Rachida Dati told French news outlet TF1 that footage of the theft showed the masked robbers entering “calmly” and smashing display cases containing the jewels. No one was injured in the incident.
A window believed to have been used in the robbery. Pic: Reuters
She described the thieves as seemingly being “experienced” with a well-prepared plan.
Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau told BFM TV that the robbers were unarmed but threatened guards with angle grinders.
The group also tried and failed to set fire to the crane they used to enter the Louvre.
A key question that remains is whether the robbers had inside assistance, authorities said.
French interior minister Laurent Nunez said the specialised police unit, which has a high success rate in cracking high-profile robberies, is leading the investigation.
Ms Beccuau added that investigators were keeping all leads open, but authorities were “looking at the hypothesis of organised crime”.
She said the thieves could have been working for a buyer, or seeking to get access to jewels that can be useful to
launder criminal proceeds.
Questions over security
Big questions are now being asked about the security in place at the Louvre, and how effective it is.
Earlier this year, officials at the Louvre requested urgent help from the French government to restore and renovate the museum’s ageing exhibition halls and better protect its countless works of art.
Police officers near the pyramid of the Louvre museum. Pic: Reuters
French justice minister Gerard Darmanin said on Monday that the heist gave a very negative image of France as it implied a failure of security services.
“There are many museums in Paris, many museums in France, with priceless values in these museums,” Mr Darmanin said in an interview with French radio station France Inter.
“What is certain is that we failed,” he said, adding the police will eventually arrest the authors.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said in a post on X that everything was being done to recover the stolen jewellery and bring the perpetrators to justice.
While culture minister Rachida Dati said the issue of museum security was not new.
“For 40 years, there was little focus on securing these major museums, and two years ago, the president of the Louvre
requested a security audit from the police prefect. Why? Because museums must adapt to new forms of crime,” she said.
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