MrPVRd
LE
From the Beeb...he'll be back
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4010293.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4010293.stm
Johnson sacked from front bench
Mr Johnson lied about allegations, a Tory spokesman said
Boris Johnson has been sacked as Tory shadow arts minister amid allegations about his private life, a spokesman for party leader Michael Howard has said.
The spokesman said Mr Johnson was sacked for lying about the claims, not because of the claims themselves.
Mr Howard sacked Mr Johnson by telephone on Saturday afternoon.
The Henley MP, who edits the Spectator magazine and is married with four children, has also been sacked from his post of party vice-chairman.
The Mail on Sunday quoted Mr Johnson as saying: "I am very sorry this decision has been taken in response to tabloid stories about my private life."
He added: "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 last week dismissed claims in a Sunday newspaper he had an affair with Spectator columnist Petronella Wyatt.
'Piffle'
He called the allegations "an inverted pyramid of piffle".
There are understood to be fresh revelations in at least two Sunday newspapers this week.
Following the sacking, the Spectator's political editor Peter Oborne told BBC News: "Boris Johnson is a superb figure, very much part of the Conservative Party's history, really inspirational, one of the few Tory MPs that everybody can relate to.
"I am not clear that this was a suitable reason for somebody to leave the front bench. The Tory party must have gone mad tonight."
Mr Johnson was embroiled in controversy last month when a Spectator editorial accused Liverpudlians of wallowing in grief over the murder in Iraq of engineer Ken Bigley.
The MP later visited the city to apologise.