Boris Johnson sacked by Tory leader

British conservative MP Boris Johnson (pictured) was contemplating backbench life again today after being sacked as shadow arts minister amid fresh details of an affair with columnist Petronella Wyatt.

The married editor of the Spectator magazine last week dismissed newspaper reports of the relationship as “piffle”.

But he was contradicted by Petronella’s mother Lady Verushka Wyatt, widow of former Tote boss and author Lord Wyatt.

Anonymous friends said 35-year-old “Petsy”, who writes for the Spectator, felt let down by Mr Johnson and “devastated” by how way he treated her.

Tory leader Michael Howard “relieved” him of his frontbench and vice-chairman positions on learning the news.

Mr Johnson, who has four children with wife of 11 years Marina Wheeler, said he intended to stay on as MP for Henley.

Rumours of an affair with the glamorous columnist had circulated for some time, but only appeared in print last week.

Then Mr Johnson dismissed them as “an inverted pyramid of piffle”.

However, Lady Wyatt confirmed the liaison to the News of the World today.

“Petronella could see that it was going no where, that there was no future in the relationship,” she said.

The Tory leader decided he had to act not in judgement over Mr Johnson’s personal life but because he had misled the media.

“Michael Howard has relieved Boris Johnson of his responsibilities as shadow minister for the arts and vice-chairman of the Conservative Party,” a spokesman said.

Mr Johnson told The Mail on Sunday today: “I am very sorry this decision has been taken in response to tabloid stories about my private life.

“I am very much looking forward to continuing to promote the policies we have developed on the arts and will do my utmost to serve my constituents in Henley.”

Mr Johnson told PA he had nothing to add to his statement to The Mail on Sunday.

“What can I say ? God. It’s been a bad evening,” he said.

His sacking is the culmination of a torrid few weeks for the one-time golden boy of the Tory Party.

His wit and charm coupled with a mean intelligence carefully hidden beneath a bumbling façade had seen him spoken of as a possible future leader.

Appearances on TV quiz Have I got News For You made him one of his party’s most famous faces.

However, he provoked fury last month when an unsigned Spectator article accused Liverpudlians of “wallowing” in grief following the death of Iraq hostage Ken Bigley.

Mr Howard ordered him to travel to the city to apologise in person but a botched visit helped add weight to suggestions that he should quit the magazine or the front bench.

Anonymous friends have spoken to newspapers about an orchestrated campaign to topple him.

Lord Tebbit, director of the Spectator for a decade before being ousted last month, only today publicly advised Mr Johnson to choose the magazine over his arts portfolio.

“My advice to Boris is not to leave The Spectator unless he has something big to replace it,” the peer told The Times.

“If Michael Howard makes Boris choose, he should stay with the magazine.

“It will not be Boris’s last chance to be a front bench spokesman.” The allegations are the latest scandal to hit The Spectator, the Tory Party bible that was once a bastion of propriety.

Publisher Kimberley Fortier, a married mother, was recently revealed to have had an affair with Home Secretary David Blunkett.

Columnist Rod Liddle also very publicly left his wife for a much younger assistant at the magazine.