Boris Johnson should leave the BBC alone unless he wants to eat worms – Vladimir McTavish

The heat is still on Boris Johnson, despite the PM’s attempts to deflect attention away from “Partygate” by the traditional Tory tactics of stoking up anger about asylum-seekers, and picking fights with the BBC.

Boris Johnson may soon need to resume his TV career (Picture: Robert Perry/PA Wire)

It would not appear to working. At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, former ally and one-time Brexit Secretary David Davis demanded “in the name of God, go now”, quoting from from MP Leo Amery’s demand in 1940 to Neville Chamberlain, which led to Winston Churchill taking over as leader.

Johnson claimed not to understand the reference, despite having written a biography of Churchill. Unless he was lying. Surely not?

Douglas Ross has also demanded that Boris should resign, which led to the repellent Jacob Rees-Mogg dismissing the Scottish Tory leader as a “lightweight”, which only goes to show how out-of-touch these people are. No-one who has seen recent pictures of Ross would use the word “light” to describe his weight.

Meanwhile, back at Operation Red Meat, other members of the Cabinet were thinking up ever-more ridiculous schemes to appeal to the base instincts of right-wing Tories.

While the obnoxious Priti Patel was calling on the Navy to scoop up boatloads of asylum-seekers from the Channel and dump them somewhere off the coast of Africa, the odious Nadine Dorries was trying to noise up the BBC.

If you think you recognise the Culture Secretary from somewhere else, you’d be right. Ten years ago, she appeared on I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here. I reckon a pot of yoghurt probably contains more culture.

Dorries claimed she was freezing the TV licence fee to relieve the pressure “on the wallets of hardworking households”, pretending to be acting in the interests of people on low incomes.

Really? This is the same Nadine Dorries who voted for a freeze of the personal allowance, a freeze on public sector pay, a rise in National Insurance, cuts to Universal Credit and a rise in council tax.

Of course, Nadine Dorries knows all about “hardworking families”, given that she used to pay her two daughters a combined income of up to £80,000 in taxpayers’ money to work in her office.

Personally, I think the licence fee represents amazing value for money. Mainly because it means that the BBC don’t need to churn out trash like “I’m A Celebrity”.

Once he has taken his place in history, Boris Johnson’s legacy will be the promotion of a bunch of third-rate morons to Cabinet posts, doubtless thinking that if he surrounded himself with faceless nobodies he would be in a position of strength.

There is nothing Tories love more than kicking the BBC. But the corporation must take some blame. After all, it was his appearances on Have I Got News For You that made Boris a household name in the first place.

He really ought to call off his attack dog of a ‘Culture’ Secretary. After all, he may be in need of those TV gigs in the very near future. Unless he’d rather be stuck in a jungle and forced to eat worms.

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