Like it or not, Boris Johnson won’t be short of offers when he leaves office

He probably won’t be invited to give the centrepiece at Davos or the CEOs’ annual gathering at Sun Valley, but internationally he’ll be lapped up, writes Chris Blackhurst

We couldn’t get enough of Boris during the 2012 Olympics, with all the zip wires and the zoink (Getty)

At a recent meeting in Downing Street with the head of one of the world’s largest industrial corporations, Boris Johnson was on his usual, jokey form. That would be fine, except his guest was a serious businessman, a thinker as well as a doer.

I am told the subject of the aviation sector came up. The multinational chieftain said the market had changed, demand for wide-bodied aircraft had slipped. Mr Johnson fixed him a stare and apparently said that was a pity, since “I like a wide-body”.

His visitor was nonplussed, in all his years meeting world leaders he’d never encountered one like Mr Johnson, except for Donald Trump maybe. For three years we’ve had a comedian in Number 10. Perhaps that’s why Mr Johnson relates to the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky so, that Mr Zelensky was a professional comic. But it’s hard to imagine Mr Johnson maintaining the prolonged level of intensity and selfless courage that the embattled Ukrainian leader has displayed.