Jesse Norman MP’s letter to the Prime Minister calling on him to go is a belter, a deadly missive, one for the ages. It takes Boris Johnson apart and has gone viral.
There’s an added piquancy in that it is a letter written by someone who knows Boris well. Norman and the Prime Minister used to be friends. Norman was perhaps the first to suggest to Johnson he should run as London mayor and he has supported him since, or right up until Boris told him in September last year, during the reshuffle, his services were no longer required at the Treasury.
This was a very odd decision, even by the PM’s standards. During the pandemic, Norman as Financial Secretary to the Treasury managed the Covid furlough scheme. The Bingham/Norman household had a busy pandemic. Norman is married to Dame Kate Bingham, who ran the vaccines taskforce. Letting go Jesse Norman, treating him in such an offhand, shabby way was a bold move that might one day rebound.
At the time Boris seemed not grasp any of this or see the danger in turning a friend into an enemy. Well, after that letter today, as they say in Scotland, “ye ken noo” (you know now, Boris.)
Here’s the letter:
