Boris Johnson is set to become the Daily Mail’s new columnist, according to reports.
On Friday, the Daily Mail’s front page announced that an “erudite new columnist who’ll be required reading Westminster and across the world” would be starting on Saturday.
It included a rather familiar-looking silhouette next to the words, too.
POLITICO’s London Playbook then reported early on Friday morning that the ex-prime minister had secured the writing gig.
It said one of its “moles” has alleged Johnson will be on a “very high six-figure sum” to write up his weekly thoughts. Playbook also speculates that Johnson could use the platform to “torment Rishi Sunak”, which could make life pretty difficult for the government and risk further division in the Tory party.
And this is just the latest in a long week of headlines about the former No.10 occupant.
On Thursday, the parliamentary privileges committee released its long-awaited report into partygate, and concluded Johnson did deliberately mislead the Commons when he claimed no Covid lockdown rules were broken in Downing Street.
The report, which came from a group of MPs said Johnson committed a “serious contempt” of parliament by misleading his colleagues.
It also claimed he breached the confidence of the committee by revealing what they had concluded almost a week before it was published.
Johnson resigned as an MP last Friday when he saw an advanced copy of the report. On the same day, he denounced its findings, calling the committee a “kangaroo court” and a “witch hunt”.
The committee said allies of Johnson had engaged in “personal abuse” of its MPs, too.
When the report went public, the ex-PM released another furious statement, calling it “the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination”.
If he had not preempted the report by voluntarily stepping down, the committee says it would have recommended a 90-day suspension from the Commons for Johnson.
They also advised that he should be denied the right to have a former MP’s parliamentary pass.
MPs will vote on whether to follow the committee’s recommendations on Monday, which also happens to be Johnson’s 59th birthday.
Just a handful of Tory MPs have expressed their ongoing loyalty to the ex-PM publicly, suggesting only a few plan to reject the committee’s suggestions for Johnson’s punishment.