If Conor Burns, one of Boris Johnson’s long-term toadies, is allowed to pick up his knighthood in the former prime minister’s dishonours list, it may well be tarnished. He was sacked last week as trade minister and had the Tory whip removed following a complaint of serious misconduct at the party’s disastrous conference in Birmingham.
The last time Burns had to be sacked as trade minister and suspended from his party – when he was censored by the Commons Standards Committee for “making veiled threats to use parliamentary privilege to further his family’s interests” – Drew Mellor, chair of his local association at Bournemouth, was quick to assure me they were standing by their man. Ominously perhaps for Burns, the local association has not got back to me this time around.
