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Ministers being wheeled out to defend No 10 over the Chris Pincher scandal are still in denial. When will reality dawn?Watching Dominic Raab react to Simon McDonald’s bombshell letter live on air this morning was like watching a character in a movie discover he’s been dead all along. Even as the secretary of state for justice was touring the studios pushing the latest Frankenstein’s monster of a line on what No 10 knew – and when – about multiply accused sex pest Chris Pincher, the former head of the diplomatic service was releasing a letter to the parliamentary standards commissioner blowing the whole thing apart. There had been formal complaints in 2019 about the man Johnson went on to promote; they were investigated and upheld; and Johnson was briefed in person about the investigation and outcome. “You get to the point when you have to do the right thing,” observed McDonald later, with rather deadly mildness.And yet, do you? The great tragedy of those who work for Boris Johnson is their failure to remotely grasp the naked contempt in which he holds them. When Johnson was in hospital with Covid, Rishi Sunak fixed the cameras with big eyes and quavered: “The prime minister is not only my colleague and boss, but also my friend.” I wonder if he still thought that after his wife’s tax arrangements got tactically leaked? During that same hospital stay, Dominic Raab deputised for Johnson, to whom Raab also kept referring as not just his boss, but “my friend”. This was rather poignant then, but sensationally more so now. Dominic, Dominic, Dominic … WAKE UP. When Johnson is finally prised from office, let me assure you that he will never actively choose to see you socially ever again. The prime minister is not your friend. The prime minister is the guy who sent you out on multiple media outlets this morning to advance yet another pack of lies for him, leaving you once again upstaged by your own throbbing forehead vein. Raab did not feature in this morning’s cabinet footage, tellingly rushed out by Il Big Dog. Maybe he was having his knuckles bandaged after having put his fist through a wall.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...