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.
Westminster Accounts: Search for your MP
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.
World
Methanol poisoning warning list expanded – symptoms to spot and how you can avoid it when travelling
Eight countries have been added to a UK Foreign Office (FCDO) list warning Britons of a risk of methanol poisoning from tainted alcohol.
Guidance has been added to the FCDO’s travel pages for Ecuador, Kenya, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Uganda and Russia after an increase in cases of serious illness and death caused by alcoholic drinks tainted with methanol.
The list previously only included methanol poisoning guidance for countries where British nationals have been affected.
This included: Cambodia, Indonesia, Turkey, Costa Rica, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Fiji.
Last year, British backpacker Simone White died in Laos, after reportedly drinking “free shots” from a local bar in the resort of Vang Vieng.
The 28-year-old from Orpington, Kent, was one of four, including an Australian woman and two Danish women, who died after being treated for methanol poisoning.
As part of the FCDO Travel Aware campaign, it is issuing information on recognising the symptoms and reducing the risks of methanol poisoning.
Hamish Falconer, the minister responsible for consular and crisis, said: “Methanol poisoning can kill – it can be difficult to detect when drinking and early symptoms mirror ordinary alcohol poisoning. By the time travellers realise the danger, it can be too late.
“I encourage all travellers to check our travel advice and Travel Aware pages before they go on holiday.”
Vang Vieng, Laos. File pic: iStock
What is methanol?
Methanol, or CH3OH, is very similar to ethanol – the pure form of alcohol in alcoholic drinks.
Like ethanol, it is an odourless, tasteless, and highly flammable liquid – but it has a different chemical structure that makes it toxic for humans.
Otherwise known as wood alcohol, methanol is most often used to make solvents, pesticides, paint thinners, and alternative fuels.
What makes it so dangerous is the way our bodies metabolise it.
Once consumed, our enzymes metabolise methanol into formaldehyde, the substance used to make industrial glue and embalming substances, before breaking it down into formic acid.
“The formic acid upsets the acid balance in blood and the major consequence is initially the effect on someone’s breathing. There are effects on many other organs, the kidney being one,” says Professor Alastair Hay, emeritus professor of environmental toxicology at the University of Leeds.
“Formaldehyde attacks nerves, particularly the optic nerve and blindness is a potential risk,” he adds.
Travelling Britons should avoid counterfeit alcohols. Pic: iStock
How does it end up in alcoholic drinks?
In southeast Asia and other popular tourist destinations, methanol can be found in alcoholic drinks for two main reasons.
Firstly, it is cheaper than ethanol, so it is sometimes added instead to save costs, before the counterfeit alcohol is bottled and sold in shops and bars.
Alternatively, it can occur by accident when alcohol is homemade – something common across the region.
When alcohol is distilled and fermented without the appropriate monitoring, it can sometimes produce methanol in toxic quantities.
Because it is impossible to tell the difference between methanol and ethanol content without specialist equipment, homemade drinks are often offered to tourists without anyone knowing how dangerous they are.
Simone White died of methanol poisoning in Laos in 2024
What are the symptoms of methanol poisoning?
Methanol is highly toxic, so as little as 25ml can prove fatal.
Methanol poisoning can be treated by using ethanol to counter the effects on the body – but only within the first 10 to 30 hours after consumption.
This makes early diagnosis and warnings to others critical. Some symptoms, however, can appear 12–48 hours after drinking.
The most common symptoms are:
• Vomiting and nausea;
• Changes in vision, including blurring, loss of sight, tunnel vision and difficulty looking at bright lights;
• Abdominal and muscle pain;
• Dizziness and confusion;
• Drowsiness and fatigue.
Methanol poisoning symptoms are similar to those from alcohol poisoning – but are often more severe. If drinks were left unattended or your symptoms appear disproportionate to the amount you drank, it could be methanol poisoning, authorities warn.
How is it treated?
Professor Hay says treatment involves removing methanol from the blood via dialysis – while “keeping someone mildly drunk” by giving them ethanol at the same time.
“The principle behind administering ethanol is quite simple; it delays methanol metabolism,” he says.
“Both alcohols are broken down by the same liver enzyme, alcohol dehydrogenase. But the enzyme prefers ethanol.
“So ethanol acts as a competitive inhibitor largely preventing methanol breakdown, but markedly slowing it down, allowing the body to vent methanol from the lungs and some through the kidneys, and a little through sweat.”
This avoids the process of methanol ultimately metabolising as formic acid, he adds.
How can you avoid it while travelling?
The most commonly affected drinks are:
• Local spirits, such as rice and palm liquor, often labelled ‘special’ or ‘happy’ drinks;
• Spirit-based mixed drinks such as cocktails;
• Counterfeit brand-name bottled alcohol sold in bars and shops.
In order to minimise risks, travellers should:
• Buy alcohol only from licensed bars, hotels, or shops;
• Check labels for signs bottles may be counterfeit, including poor print quality or spelling errors;
• Avoid homemade alcohol;
• Check bottles are properly sealed before drinking from them;
• Avoid free drinks you have not seen poured yourself;
• Do not leave drinks or food unattended.
A 100-strong specialist police unit is investigating the daring theft of French Crown Jewels from the Louvre – as officers face “a race against time” to recover the “priceless” objects.
On Sunday, four thieves stole nine items – one of which was dropped and recovered at the scene – in a heist pulled off while the central Paris museum was open to visitors.
What do we know about the police investigation?
A huge police operation to find the culprits and the jewels is now under way – with one expert describing the probe as “one of the biggest manhunts in French history”.
Paris prosecutors have entrusted the investigation to a specialised unit known as the BRB, which often deals with high-profile robberies.
A former officer who served in the unit has said it handled the 2016 Kim Kardashian probe, after a gang stormed the reality TV star’s Paris apartment, tied her up and escaped with jewellery worth an estimated $6m (£4.4m).
Read more: What will happen to the stolen jewellery?
A forensic team inspects a window believed to have been used by the culprits. Pic: Reuters
Pascal Szkudlara said the BRB has around 100 agents, with over a dozen who specialise in museum thefts.
Investigators are examining video evidence, telephone records and forensic evidence, while also speaking to informants.
Mr Szkudlara said the BRB “can have teams working on it 24/7 and for a long period”, adding he has “100%” confidence the thieves will be caught.
Art detective Arthur Brand – who helps police across Europe with investigations into missing works – has said officers will also be reviewing security footage going back weeks, looking to identify suspicious people casing out the gallery.
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‘Matter of time’ before gang hit Louvre
What do we know about the culprits?
Only a small pool of criminals would be capable of a job as audacious as Sunday’s heist and they may already be known to police, specialists say.
Art theft expert Anthony Amore told Sky News the culprits are “probably a European criminal gang”.
“The idea it’s professional thieves like you see in Ocean’s 11, it’s not that,” he told presenter Anna Botting. “It’s the sort of people who do this in all sorts of venues, so they are professional in that sense. They had this very well planned out.”
What have officers found so far?
As well as recovering one of the stolen items – a crown that once belonged to Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugenie – at the scene, French Culture Minister Rachida Dati said police have found “motorcycles and a licence plate”.
They have also recovered evidence from a cherry picker used by the thieves to access the first-floor Galerie d’Apollon, where the jewels were on display.
Read more:
The stolen items revealed
Workers ‘repeatedly warned of security shortcomings’
An officer swabs the cherry picker. Pic: Louvre
Ms Dati added: “I also want to pay tribute to the security officers who prevented the basket lift from being set on fire.
“One of the criminals tried to set it on fire, but they forced him to flee.”
Police face ‘a race against time’
Art detective Mr Brand told Sky News the likelihood of the loot being found intact is reducing every day.
“These crown jewels are so famous, you just cannot sell them,” he explained. “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 said officers will need to catch the thieves within the week to preserve any hopes of the jewels being recovered.
“If it takes longer, the loot is probably gone and dismantled,” he said. “It’s a race against time.”
The jewels stolen from the Louvre are worth an estimated €88m (£76m), a Paris prosecutor has said.
Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said about 100 investigators were involved in the police hunt for the suspects and the gems following the heist on Sunday from the world’s most-visited museum.
“The wrongdoers who took these gems won’t earn €88m if they had the very bad idea of disassembling these jewels,” she told broadcaster RTL.
“We can perhaps hope that they’ll think about this and won’t destroy these jewels without rhyme or reason.”
It comes after France’s culture minister said the security apparatus installed at the Louvre worked properly during the theft, after questions emerged about the security and whether security cameras might have failed.
The thieves rode a basket lift up the Louvre’s facade, forced a window open, smashed display cases and then fled with the priceless Napoleonic jewels.
“The Louvre museum’s security apparatus did not fail, that is a fact,” the minister, Rachida Dati. “The Louvre museum’s security apparatus worked.”
Members of a forensic team inspect a window believed to have been used by the culprits. Pic: Reuters
‘A wound for all of us’
Ms Dati said she had launched an administrative inquiry, in addition to the police investigation, to ensure full transparency into what happened.
She described the heist as a painful injury for France, saying it was “a wound for all of us”.
“Why? Because the Louvre is far more than the world’s largest museum. It’s a showcase for our French culture and our shared patrimony.”
Read more:
How ‘one of the biggest manhunts in French history’ is unfolding
What will happen to the stolen jewellery?
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‘Matter of time’ before gang hit Louvre
Cameras ‘all around the Louvre’
On Monday, France’s interior minister, Laurent Nunez, said the museum’s alarm was triggered when the thieves forced the window of the Apollo Gallery.
Police officers arrived at the site two or three minutes after they were called by an individual who witnessed the scene, he said on LCI TV.
Officials said the heist lasted less than eight minutes, including less than four minutes inside the Louvre.
Read more:
The stolen items revealed
Workers ‘repeatedly warned of security shortcomings’
Mr Nunez did not disclose details about video surveillance cameras that may have filmed the thieves around and in the museum, pending a police investigation.
“There are cameras all around the Louvre,” he said.
According to officials, eight items were stolen during the heist:
• A tiara from the set of Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense
• A necklace from the sapphire set of Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense
• A single earring, from the pair belonging to the sapphire set of Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense
• An emerald necklace from the Empress Marie Louise set
• A pair of emerald earrings from the Empress Marie Louise set
• A brooch known as the “reliquary brooch”
• The tiara of Empress Eugenie
• A large corsage bow brooch of Empress Eugenie
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