When the Mail on Sunday’s front page – “Musk And Cummings ‘in Plot To Sabotage UK Politics’” – dropped at the weekend it caused many a raised eyebrow in senior Conservative circles.
Many found the story perfectly plausible, given Dominic Cummings’ habitual and relentless plotting with anyone who might listen, but the rumour among top Tories has been aimed in a somewhat different direction. They believe a Conservative big beast does have the ear of the world’s richest man and Donald Trump’s newly-minted “first buddy” but, rather than Cummings… it’s Boris Johnson.
Allies of the former prime minister, who is still said to be furious about his own removal from office, believe he has been in close and regular WhatsApp contact with Musk for months, and say they can detect Johnson’s fingerprints on several of Elon’s most famous interventions.
One suggestion is that Musk’s adoption of the phrase “two-tier Keir” in the wake of the August riots across the country was thanks to a Johnsonian intervention. But it’s Musk’s keen interest in columnist Allison Pearson’s visit from Essex police that is most frequently laid at Johnson’s door.
The story had everything Boris Johnson likes: it involved one of his former Telegraph colleagues and allies, it supposedly involved a “non-hate crime incident” (in reality it was the investigation of a possible crime), and it could be framed as an attack on free speech by Keir Starmer. Musk adopted the cause in November, and it seems to have set him on his current radicalised path against Starmer and his government.
Senior Tories have, of course, been known to be wrong and to get high on the supply of their own rumours – as any reader of Nadine Dorries’ non-fiction releases will know – but this is the conversation in well-placed circles of those in a position to know. Keir Starmer is dealing with something close to the classic horror movie situation: the calls aren’t quite coming from inside the house – but they may well be coming from one recent former resident…
Meanwhile, Simone Finn, a Conservative peer, wrote to government minister in the Lords Fiona Twycroft last month to ask “what is their policy on the length of time that (1) Cabinet Ministers, and (2) the Foreign Secretary, should remain in office”.
Twycross’ answer was that such decisions rested with the prime minister. But what’s not clear is why Finn was posing the question.
Is she concerned that some people are not spending enough time in a role to get to grips with it? If so, she may have been provoked by the case of one person who lasted a whole two months and one day as chief of staff of Boris Johnson’s chaotic Downing Street administration – one Simone Finn.
Elsewhere there’s bad news for retro fans of the early-to-mid-2020s – an official petition calling on Rishi Sunak to be brought back to Downing Street has been rejected by the parliamentary authorities.
A petition entitled ‘Bring Rishi Sunak back to save UK economy’ was submitted to the relevant body at the end of November, stating: “Labour policies will have huge irreversible impact on UK economy. Rishi Sunak is the best man to lead the country.”
Unfortunately, or indeed, perhaps fortunately, for Sunak, the petition overstepped the mark. “We can’t accept petitions about appointments, which includes requests for individuals to be appointed to or removed from office,” said the authorities.
(For an insight into the sanity of the sort of people who submit petitions to Parliament, others rejected in the same tranche include ‘Open driving age to anyone who can pass’, ‘Change how the mayor of London is elected. Should be put to a national vote’, ‘Bring back Tesco crinkled salt and pepper chips’, ‘Let Cows Trump’ and ‘Ban on Christmas songs on the radio until December’. Actually, the last is something your correspondent can get on board with.)
