Mandrake

There is no official recognition for the prime minister's wife, and Boris Johnson 'wants to fix that'.

Labour were unable to explain why Saudia Arabia's ambassador to London was in Brighton during the party's conference.

The former Daily Mail editor was rejected from the position of heading up OFCOM - could he end up reapplying?

The international trade secretary is Boris Johnson's choice to replace Dominic Raab in the foreign office.

Not everyone's willing to accept that Brexit has played a part in the shortage of food on supermarkets. TIM WALKER explains more.

William Shawcross claimed that Boris Johnson's 'finest hour' will be if he 'saved' the nation from the EU.

Carrie Johnson has her work cut out as part of an ambitious project to 'rewild' 13 African elephants

Tim Walker reports on the latest revamp at Chequers

TIM WALKER's Mandrake column explores the prime minister's repetitive use of the word 'fantastic'.

TIM WALKER on how the Sun and Mail on Sunday struggled with reporting an open secret The press statement Michael Gove and Sarah Vine put out to an unstartled nation last week announcing that they were splitting up included a request for privacy. Most of the major news organisations had, however, kept scrupulously to the press […]

Boris Johnson may be frustrated by Rishi Sunak's reluctance to fund his increasingly hair-brained schemes, but the prime minister's wife Carrie at least has reason to be grateful to the chancellor.

The news that John Bercow was joining the Labour Party came as much a surprise to Sir Keir Starmer as everyone else.

The Queen had a brutal put down for Boris Johnson, reports Tim Walker.

A list of the chancellor's latest meetings show he has been busier than the rest of the cabinet, and is not necessarily sticking to his own brief

Fleet Street reacts to Paul Dacre’s thwarted Ofcom ambitions Paul Dacre always kept a studiously low profile when he was editor of the Daily Mail, but his name appeared in the news pages of the Mail on Sunday over the weekend in a piece that savaged Sir Nick Clegg, the public face of Facebook, for allegedly trying to frustrate his […]

Philip Hammond‘s association with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia may be controversial, but it’s proving to be highly remunerative for the former chancellor all the same. Mandrake hears “Spreadsheet Phil” has just pocketed £320,000 from Matrix Partners – the consultancy firm he set up after leaving the Treasury – with a further £40,000 due to […]

TIM WALKER on Rishi Sunak’s latest spending, and why the theatrical Fox dynasty is a broad church when it comes to politics Although he scarcely faces much competition, Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, prides himself on being the most ‘gym fit’ member of the cabinet. The lockdowns have meant he couldn’t attend any of the Digme gyms […]

TIM WALKER on an unusual theatrical production, with an intriguing premise The premise is intriguing: an unacknowledged daughter of Boris Johnson is on a quest to find out what he’s really like. Charlotte Evans, the journalist and theatre performer, had initially been commissioned by the BBC to make My Dad Boris, which comprised serious interviews […]

TIM WALKER on Michael Gove’s reverse Midas touch. Michael Gove – the man who assured British fishermen that Brexit would make them rich – appears not to have lost his reverse Midas touch. Since joining the board of trustees of Dorneywood, Rishi Sunak’s grace and favour country retreat in Buckinghamshire, the value of its investments has plummeted […]

David Cameron’s mates at Greensill Capital may not have been eligible for any of Rishi Sunak’s emergency Covid bailouts, but it turns out that a company in which the chancellor’s wife Akshata Murty had invested in heavily did qualify. Even though the educational publishing outfit called Mrs Wordsmith received a £1.3m cash injection from Sunak’s […]

An inquiry was launched more than a year ago – when will it reach a conclusion? More than a year after it was revealed that Kathryn Stone, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, had begun an inquiry into how Boris Johnson‘s Caribbean break over the Christmas holiday in 2019 was funded, she has still to say a word […]

TIM WALKER on the travails facing the co-chairman of the Conservative Party. Boris Johnson may have appointed him as treasurer of his London mayoral campaign and later asked him to sort out the Tory party’s finances as its co-chair, but Ben Elliot, pictured, risks prosecution for failing to make the deadlines with the book-keeping at […]

TIM WALKER on Dominic Cummings’ prospects on the after-dinner circuit. With apparently little else to do, Dominic Cummings is to try to cash in on his time in government on the after-dinner circuit – and has signed up with an outfit called Chartwell Speakers. One leading booker tells me, however, that his earnings are unlikely to make […]

BBC Breakfast presenters Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty want to put the controversy over Robert Jenrick’s flag behind them Although Amanda Platell is Australian, she was indignant over the weekend at the way the BBC Breakfast presenters Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty had gently teased the housing secretary Robert Jenrick about the enormous Union flag […]

TIM WALKER on the tax implications for the prime minister’s controversial Downing Street makeover. Boris Johnson‘s cunning plan to have party donors fund the £200,000 refurbishment of the Downing Street flat he shares with Carrie Symonds could trigger a significant personal tax liability for him. By any reckoning, this amounts to a “gift” and the Ministerial Code […]

TIM WALKER on Nigel Farage’s latest business venture, Michael Gove’s backer, and a royal scam that caught out several veteran palace watchers. Nigel Farage‘s decision to quit as leader of the Reform UK party – he said he was “done” with frontline politics – may be motivated by a desire to spend more time with his […]

The SNP’s John Nicolson was in for a surprise when he revisited his family’s ancestral Highland home. When John Nicolson, the redoubtable SNP politician, decided to revisit his family’s ancestral Highland home, he could have had no idea it would turn into Through the Keyhole meets the MacKardashians. “It was a modest Georgian house at Langwell, near Ullapool, […]

TIM WALKER on Downing Street’s rival camps. Michael Gove may have put a brave face on Boris Johnson‘s decision to give his Brexit brief to Lord Frost, but I hear relations between the two old rivals are at their most strained since the 2016 Tory leadership contest. “The flashpoint was the PM’s disastrous trip to Scotland last month […]