While it may have been the naughtiest thing that Theresa May has ever done, running through a field on his morning jog probably wasn’t even the naughtiest thing Boris Johnson did on Monday.
The inveterate political troublemaker’s running route managed to raise eyebrows at Tory party conference in Birmingham even though he was more than 80 miles away, at his old constituency’s home in Thame, Oxfordshire.
The former foreign secretary has already overshadowed Tory conference with a scathing attack on the prime minister’s “deranged” Chequers plan – even though he is not arriving for his 1,000-strong pro-Brexit rally until Tuesday.
Johnson’s aides protested his innocence, pointing out that photographers regularly snapped “the boss” as he loped off on his morning jog. An investigation by the Guardian later revealed that a restless photographer had wandered off from his usual spot and stumbled across the MP.
But if Johnson was deliberately trolling the prime minister, he did a pretty poor job of it. Seasoned nature watchers were quick to point out that he was, in fact, running through a field of dried grass, with one quipping: “Boris doesn’t know his botany.”
