Like achilles, boris needs to stop sulking in his tent | thearticle

On Friday, the question was posed in these columns: are there any gentlemen left in the Tory party? Right on cue, Boris Johnson gave us his answer. Earlier that morning, police were called

to deal with a loud altercation taking place at the Camberwell address where he had been living since his wife, Marina, threw him out last year — a flat belonging to his girlfriend Carrie

Symonds. The police satisfied themselves that she was safe and left. More than three days later, we still don’t know what happened in that flat. Neighbours (who have themselves come under

media scrutiny) stand by their story that Ms Symonds screamed at Boris to “get off her” and to “get out” of her flat. She also allegedly told him that he had ruined her sofa with red wine,

adding: “You’re spoilt. You don’t care for money or anything.” He is said to have told her to “get off my f***ing laptop”. A recording of these and other words, given to the _Guardian_, has

yet to surface, perhaps because of legal threats from the Boris camp. Demonstrators have targeted the flat. The couple appear to have moved elsewhere.   Whatever happened that night in

Camberwell, it seems unlikely that there is an innocent explanation. For such an ugly, perhaps sinister, incident to find its way into the public domain would be a serious, potentially

catastrophic matter for any professional person — let alone a man supposedly destined to occupy the highest office in the land. Whatever the facts may be, Boris has made things far worse for

himself by his attitude, which amounts to “never apologise, never explain”. He had the chance to give his side of the story immediately afterwards, before it had even broken. He chose not

to do so. On Saturday, at the hustings in Birmingham, he had another opportunity when he was asked several times about it by Iain Dale. Again, he bluffed and blustered, refusing to look his

interlocutor in the eye. He has lain low ever since. Now it is probably too late. The public, including Conservative members, have made up their minds. Boris is plummeting in the polls. A

race in which he began as the hot favourite is now wide open. How much does this matter? Even if the story were over — and it almost certainly isn’t — it has shone a lurid light on Boris’s

most vulnerable point: his character. Prurient profiles and regrettable reminiscences fill the press. His sole appearance left a shambolic, evasive impression, especially by comparison with

his rival, Jeremy Hunt, who has repeatedly challenged Boris to debate with him and to submit himself to proper scrutiny. Writing in _The Times _today, Hunt throws down the gauntlet: “Don’t

be a coward, Boris, man up and show the nation that you can cope with the intense scrutiny the most difficult job in the country will involve.” Boris’s spin doctors, led by Sir Lynton

Crosby, know that he has nothing to gain and everything to lose by submitting to such scrutiny. But if his popularity is in freefall, he may soon have no choice. Hunt can safely ignore the

character issue and leave his rival to keep digging. Instead, he has focused on Brexit, and Boris’s lack of mastery of detail. On Saturday, under questioning, it became clear that Boris

still has not grasped that if Britain leaves the EU on October 31 with no deal, there will be no “implementation period” in which to negotiate a free trade agreement. Leaving on WTO terms

doesn’t imply zero tariffs, but the opposite: the EU would treat the UK in exactly the same way as it does third parties, such as the US. That means tariffs of up to 40 per cent. His column

in today’s _Telegraph _does nothing to clear up the confusion. He continues to act as though Brexit were simply a leap of faith. If Boris can’t explain what he proposes to do about the

consequences of No Deal, then he isn’t fit to lead the country. He also needs to explain how he would get his Brexit policy past a House of Commons that might well be even more hostile to

him than it was to Theresa May. With the Tories at an all-time low point in the polls, he has ruled out calling a general election, though he may well believe that if he did so, his own

personal popularity would somehow carry him to victory. If that is indeed his Plan B, then he should be put on the spot and asked to explain it. He is undoubtedly the only celebrity in this

contest. He hopes to pull off the kind of campaign that won him the London mayoralty twice and tipped the balance in favour of Leave in the 2016 referendum. His enemies accuse him of being

the British Donald Trump; perhaps he feels flattered by the comparison. Yet is the Boris brand alone enough, especially as it may have been damaged by his behaviour? Fame alone is not enough

to survive the pitiless British political system. As Hunt says, “we scrutinise our politicians with more intelligent ferocity than anywhere else in the world. But in this case it just isn’t

happening.”