If we really want to punish Boris Johnson, let’s kick the greased piglet out of the Tory party

If he were still an MP, then there’d certainly be a case for removing the whip from him. But even though he’s skipped that particular pen, he is still snuffling around the sty

If it is right to, in effect, kick Boris Johnson out of parliament for knowingly lying on at least eight separate occasions, why, one may ask, is it alright for him to be a member of the Conservative Party?

If he were still an MP, then there’d certainly be a case for removing the whip from him; and, now that he’s skipped that particular pen, our greased piglet is still snuffling around the sty.

He is, at the time of writing, a member of the Tory party, throwing his weight around, chucking ordure at Rishi Sunak, making trouble and getting his snout firmly in the trough to find a perpetual leadership campaign.

But why should any party put up with that sort of behaviour?

It hardly needs pointing out that the election is only about a year away, the party stands around 15 percentage points behind Labour in the polls and Boris Johnson is doing nothing to help the situation.

Indeed, there is every sign he will soon be making matters much, much worse. At the moment, all we see of Johnson is him jogging his bulk with a cheery wave around the lanes of Oxfordshire, but his allies, a diminishing band, have let it be known that he’s ready to ignite a civil war in the party in his quest to make a comeback, hopeless as it might seem.

The Daily Mail teases us with a soon-to-arrive “erudite” columnist who’ll be read worldwide. He has put around the rumour that he’ll soon be editor of the Spectator again, and apparently there’s a volume of prime ministerial memoirs on the way – which will serve as a bible for his cultish followers.

Perhaps he’ll make a few speeches around the fringe to wreck the Tory conference. He might start running for Mayor of London again. At any rate, he has an undoubted talent for self-publicity. These days, it will be turned very much to the detriment of his old party and its current leadership.

From being its greatest asset, Johnson is turning into its most embarrassing liability. All Keir Starmer has to do is point and laugh.

It’s acrid out there in the Tory lane. “World War III” was promised by friends of Boris last weekend, just after he quit as an MP, a petulant move he may soon come to regret. This is not something the party needs.

Now, thanks to the privileges committee, the Tories should reflect on the full enormity of what the man has done to public life, and the damage he has done – and will continue to do – to the Conservative cause itself.

There are, in other words, ample grounds to expel him from his party membership. (I rather suspect he’s never actually got around to putting the application in and paying the fee, but we’ll assume he has for these purposes).

The party constitution is perfectly clear that any member “whose conduct is in conflict with the purpose, objects and values of the Party… or which is inconsistent with the objects or financial well-being of an Association or the Party or be likely to bring an Association or the Party into disrepute” may be suspended or expelled by the board of the party.

“Disrepute” seems an outstandingly apt word in the current circumstances.

Of course, Sunak won’t feel he can do any of this, because his own support within the party is so fragile, and he fears making Boris’ remaining allies even more truculent – there was some talk about a gang of them going “on strike” in parliament in protest.

Yet it is the only way that Sunak will be able to assert his authority and face them down. It’s what Margaret Thatcher had to do in the early phase of her government when the “wets” were conspiring against her and she had no alternative but to purge them. It’s what Johnson and Dominic Cummings did before the 2019 election, to break the Brexit deadlock.

As it happens, it is also the kind of ruthless move that Starmer has been executing to reinforce his control and to make his party electable – including removing the Labour whip from former leader and folk hero Jeremy Corbyn (though Corbyn’s mistakes on antisemitism were in a different category to Johnson’s).

At this phase in his premiership, and with his personal poll ratings slipping, it’s hard to see what Sunak has to lose from showing decisive, strong leadership and placing Johnson out of the way. As is sometimes observed, in politics you need to be a good butcher.