As turf wars rage among the staff at No. 10, a battle- weary Boris Johnson has sued for peace with one of Parliament’s most senior MPs.
In July the PM removed the Tory whip from Julian Lewis in an act of revenge, after the rebellious member for New Forest East stood against Johnson’s preferred candidate, Chris Grayling, for chairmanship of the influential Commons Intelligence And Security Committee.
What’s more, he committed the cardinal sin of actually winning.
Downing Street had assumed Grayling would be a shoo-in, but there was a revolt among MPs as he had no experience in security and had been ridiculed by many MPs when, as Transport Secretary, he gave a contract to a company which owned no ferries to provide ferries in the event of a no-deal Brexit.