The news that Boris Johnson has his eyes on David Cameron’s job might not count as much of a revelation but in this case it’s the source that’s notable: Andy Coulson. Three months before he stands trial on charges of phone-hacking, Cameron’s former director of communications has broken his silence in GQ.
Offering his “ten-point masterplan for saving David Cameron and stopping Labour in 2015”, Coulson writes that Boris “desperately wants to be prime minister and David has known that fact longer than most”, adding that “stabbing David, or anyone else for that matter, in the back would be distinctly off brand – just not very Boris. He would much prefer to see David fail miserably in the election and ride in on his bike to save party and country.”
Elsewhere, he offers a rather banal assessment of Ed Miliband and Ed Balls, wrongly suggesting (in my view) that Miliband’s decision to appoint Balls as shadow chancellor is the “gift that will keep on giving” and that the differences between the pair will prove as significant as those between Blair and Brown.
He writes: “The prime minister should pray Ed Balls remains shadow chancellor until the election … Appointing him as George’s opposite number was the Miliband gift that will keep on giving … The Tories must look for the divisions and make the most of them a) because they are most certainly real – always a plus – and b) because it’s history repeating itself.
“We are in this hole at least in part because of the shamefully dysfunctional Blair/Brown relationship. Labour’s two Eds dislike each other and each thinks he is smarter than the other. The Conservatives should imagine in some detail how it would work if they actually won … and share that vision with the British public.”
But regardless of the validity or otherwise of Coulson’s political analysis, his return to the fray is unambiguously bad news for Cameron. As the PM attempts to counter Ed Miliband’s charge that he “stands up for the wrong kind of people”, it is not helpful for a man about to stand trial to remind everyone that he’s on first name terms with the prime minister (“David”).
Conversely, others will point to Coulson’s piece as evidence of exactly the kind of political nous that Downing Street currently lacks. There is a popular view among Tory MPs that Cameron’s woes stem in part from his decision to surround himself with Etonian “chums”, rather than working class Thatcherites of Coulson’s variety. It is also argued that the former News of the World editor would not have allowed relations with the ring-wing press to deteriorate to the point where the Daily Telegraph, the house magazine of the Conservative Party, all but declares war on Cameron and the Sun, just three years after describing Cameron as “our only hope“, refuses to even endorse the Tories at the local elections.
Coulson’s intervention, then, offers openings for Cameron’s enemies on both the left and the right. Ahead of the trial, Downing Street must have hoped for a period of dignified silence from Coulson; that wish has not been granted.