The latest issue of the New Statesman has become a prop in the row over Boris Johnson’s fitness for office.
Amid stories about his private life emerging during his leadership campaign, including a much-publicised row with his partner Carrie Symonds, the Sunday Times heard from an old friend of his first wife Allegra Mostyn-Owen, claiming that he had harangued and threatened her.
When asked about this account, Mostyn-Owen refused to comment, but held up a copy of this week’s magazine, with the front cover depicting a mock-up of Johnson in a cage with the headline: “Restraining order”.
“You want a confirmation or a denial. I am not going to do that either way,” she told the Sunday Times. “Except that I think this is a very good cover”, pointing to the New Statesman.
Here it is: