Row harms Johnson’s campaign

What utter bosh.

Johnson knows very well that everyone was interested in the late night row in his partner’s flat, which has filled the newspapers for a couple of days and caused, for the first time in this campaign, ordinary people to discuss the battle for Number Ten.

If Johnson was so keen on people knowing about his policies, why did he remain virtually tight-lipped throughout the Parliamentary section of the campaign? His performance, and that of his rivals among Parliamentarians was, to put the best light on things, a demeaning episode. The television interview was practically a wash-out, which attracted virtually no attention outside Westminster.

Now, people have seen something to talk about in this campaign. Even old-hands like Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the former Foreign Secretary, say Johnson’s private life and problems were of huge importance and not irrelevant in the case of a man who wants to lead the nation. This domestic row has done him no good whatsoever and he will at least be thankful that it has occurred virtually at the beginning of the hustings campaign so that by the end, it may well have been forgotten. He should be so lucky.

- There is plainly a fine line in politics between being hailed as a hero or vilified as a bully or even a thug. Unfortunately for him, Tory MP Mark Field fell into the wrong category. His robust efforts to eject a female intruder from the Mansion House event has been denounced as an act of thuggery and he has been suspended from his ministerial post as a result.

But consider whether this woman could easily have been armed with a knife or firearm or an explosive, and Field instinctively removed her as she made her way to the front of the hall.

In my opinion, he should be commended for an instinctive and speedy act of bravery.