Let's refresh our memories: shadow immigration secretary Damian Green was arrested in November on suspicion of leaking confidential material from the Home Office. The House was shocked and a Commons select committee started investigating. Boris was called because, since he's the chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority, he was told about the arrest before it happened. And, in true Boris fashion, apparently realised there was about to be a "hoo-ha or a kerfuffle or a commotion or a controversy".
Stay with me, it gets interesting. No, really. See, what people want to know is whether the Mayor then tipped off the Tories, Johnson and Green both being Balliol men and all that. Could Boris remember? Could he heck as like.
He spoke to David Cameron at 3pm. No, 12pm. No, 2pm. Come on man, don't you have staff to look up these things for you?
The Mayor's bumbling endears him to many, but perhaps this is one of the occasions he should have used his serious head. The London Assembly is already threatening to investigate whether he "potentially corrupted" the police's work, which could end up with him suspended. And now he's been properly rapped on the knuckles for being a knucklehead to a parliamentary committee. (Yes, this is quite serious for Westminster. They do things differently in politics.)
Boris has since clarified his story and assured the committee he hadn't meant to, like, diss them. Maybe this episode will persuade him to restrict his more colourful moments to less solemn situations.
