Boris’ bodycount: BBC chief Richard Sharp is just the latest Johnson casualty
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrives at Hillsborough Castle for the Gala dinner to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement on April 19th | Pool photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images
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LONDON — Don’t go near Boris Johnson. Your reputation might depend on it.
Richard Sharp, who resigned as BBC chairman Friday after a damaging report into his links to the former prime minister, is just the latest in a long line of figures who have taken a disastrous hit after personal dealings with Johnson.
Responding to Sharp’s exit, one well-placed government official sighed that they didn’t know anyone who had worked with Sharp at the BBC who felt he hadn’t been a “good chairman.”
“But Boris damages everyone,” they added pointedly.
Here’s POLITICO’s guide to some of the other memorable casualties of dealings with Johnson.
The ex-prime ministers’ club
Johnson’s unbridled ambition and capacity for trouble-making effectively ended the premierships of two of his Conservative predecessors.
Johnson’s decision to back the Brexit camp during the 2016 referendum proved critical for the final result, forcing his old Etonian rival David Cameron out of No. 10.
After Johnson botched the resulting leadership contest (with a little help from his old frenemy Michael Gove), Theresa May made him her foreign secretary in 2016. But Johnson then piled pressure on May’s troubled No. 10 operation by resigning over her Brexit deal and leading a ‘Chuck Chequers’ rebellion from the backbenches.
He finally got his hands on the crown when May quit a year later, unable to get her Brexit deal past her mutinous MPs.
The chiefs of staff
Dominic Cummings fled Johnson’s Downing Street operation after little over a year, with both men’s reputations in tatters.
Johnson’s subsequent time at No.10 was marked by repeated promises to draft in the grown-ups. But they never seemed to have much luck. After one predictably chaotic spell, former Treasury civil servant Dan Rosenfield was supposed to bring calm to Johnson’s fractured Downing Street operation, and was billed as a safe pair of hands.
Fast forward just over a year (and days after a well-respected policy chief quit on Johnson), and Rosenfield was out amid a series of brutal briefings against him. Suffice to say the Johnson drama didn’t exactly cool from there.
TV star Allegra Stratton was drafted in by Boris Johnson to become the public face of his government, but instead became the public face of Partygate | Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images
From mandarins to plums
Senior civil servants weren’t immune from the apparent Johnson curse, either. A respected Cabinet secretary at the time Johnson entered office, Mark Sedwill swiftly stepped down in September 2020 after a bruising stint at the top in which he had clashed with Johnson’s overtly political Downing Street operation.
Johnson replaced him with Simon Case — until then a well thought-of establishment figure — who quickly found himself literally in the room as the Partygate scandal unfolded.
“I hate that man — he’s a worm,” one civil servant told POLITICO recently, suggesting Case is not, erm, universally adored among the rank-and file these days.
And don’t forget Martin Reynolds. Johnson’s principal private secretary left government last year after a “bring your own booze” drinks invitation he sent to staff ahead of a government gathering amid strict coronavirus restrictions. A well-liked civil servant would find himself branded ‘Party Marty’ forever more.
Curse of the ex-journos
Plenty of top journalists and comms pros have been drawn into the Johnson orbit … only to find their reputations taking a brutal hit.
TV star Allegra Stratton was drafted in by Johnson to become the public face of his government, at the helm of a new — and, erm never-actually-launched — series of televised Downing Street press briefings.
Stratton instead became the public face of … Partygate, resigning in tears after a leaked video showed her and other aides laughing about how they would handle a question on a coronavirus rule-breaking party. It was a rough spot in a career that had seen Stratton serve as a TV journalist for BBC Newsnight and ITV News, an accomplished senior adviser to Rishi Sunak and a spokesperson for the COP26 climate summit.
Two other ex-journalists tapped up by Johnson, well-regarded Daily Mail hacks Jack Doyle and James Slack, also became closely entwined with the Partygate scandal. Both left the government soon after. And former BBC man Guto Harri had a short and predictably chaotic stint in the top spin job at No. 10 before Johnson’s government finally imploded.
The watchdogs de-fanged
Ethics watchdogs also had a funny habit of coming a cropper around Johnson — it’s unclear quite why this would be.
Alex Allan, a senior civil servant, was appointed as the prime minister’s independent adviser on ministerial standards by David Cameron in 2011. He would serve in the ethics adviser role for the remainder of Cameron’s premiership and the entirety of Theresa May’s reign.
But he survived just 16 months under Johnson, quitting after Johnson refused to enforce his findings on a clear breach of the ministerial code by a top minister.
Iranian-British dual citizen and mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained during a trip to Iran and jailed for five years on charges of plotting against the regime | Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images
Christopher Geidt, another ornament of the constitution as private secretary to Queen Elizabeth II for a decade, fared little better when he replaced Allan.
His report on Johnson’s controversial refurbishment of Downing Street found the PM did not breach the ministerial code, but the Labour MP Chris Bryant suggested Allan’s reputation was “tarnished” by the affair.
Geidt would later resign with a blast at Johnson over his handling of steel tariffs, in a move seen as honorable — and a long time coming.
The wallpaper designer
Nobody saw this one coming. But even Johnson’s expensive wallpaper designer, Lulu Lytle, found herself sucked into his vortex of chaos amid scandalous stories around how he had funded a revamp of his Downing Street flat. She even popped up at a Partygate event, for good measure.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
This one’s not remotely funny. Through no fault of her own, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe faced the appalling consequences of Johnson’s lack of care with words.
The Iranian-British dual citizen and mother was detained during a trip to Iran and jailed for five years on charges of plotting against the regime.
When, during a parliamentary select committee grilling in 2017, then-Foreign Secretary Johnson told MPs she was “teaching people journalism” in the Middle Eastern country, Zaghari-Ratcliffe found herself facing new charges of creating “propaganda against the regime.”
Upon her eventual release last year, Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s family let Johnson know that mistake had taken a real toll.
The big man himself
POLITICO is way too classy to get into Johnson’s, er, colorful personal life, and all the people who may have felt somewhat disappointed in him along the way. There’s certainly one or two names from his past you could add in here.
But there are plenty in Westminster who think the final and greatest victim of Johnson’s style is … Boris Johnson himself. Despite an almighty 80-seat majority, his administration finally came crashing down after a series of ludicrous personal scandals last year. Truly, nobody is safe.
Note: This list is being updated … probably forever more.
Emilio Casalicchio contributed reporting.
Source: POLITICO Europe
