Elephants and DNA tests call for Boris's 60th party

Boris Johnson is hosting a 60th birthday party at his Grade II listed house in Oxfordshire on Saturday. Dozens of guests from his stay at Downing St and London City Hall are expected for a celebratory lunch and to admire the huge elephant sculptures in the garden that his wife Carrie gave him as a wedding gift. surprise birthday this week. One guest tells me that discussions will inevitably focus on how Johnson can return to Parliament to save the Conservative Party, saying: the great and the good will all be there; the party mandarins regroup.

Johnson's sister Rachel tells me she's giving Johnson a 23andMe DNA kit to see if we're really brother and sister.

I don't think there's much doubt about that, Rachel.

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Cameron's delicate touch

Former Prime Minister David Cameron, who was helping Rishi Sunak campaign in North Devon this week, was once asked by a neighbor in Oxfordshire to help me with the lambing because I small hands, he told the farmers.

Cameron, a volunteer, jumped over a wall and helped his farmer neighbor during a difficult birth. The farmer said to him: Thank you, Mr Prime Minister, I will call this one Dave and I will ask him for a bonus.

A week passed and an excited Cameron returned to check on the lambs' progress.

How is Dave? He asked. The farmer replied: Oh, Daves is doing just fine. Cameron said: Where is he? The farmer pointed to a field containing about 200 lambs. Which one is Dave? » asked Cameron perplexed. Oh, they're all Dave, said the farmer.

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I always swim

Cameron still swims wildly on long trips, he told me when I ran into him for GB News (as I noted in recent weeks in Peterborough, he used to dive into frozen lakes when he was Prime Minister). We're going somewhere in Cornwall this evening, he said, although an attendant had forgotten his trunks. No photographs, Cameron told me sternly. Cameron even took a dip in the South Atlantic for a swim during his visit to the Falklands in February. The sea was only three degrees. Brrr!

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UKIP's revenge

Political journalist John Stevens recalled election night in 2015, when Ukip supporters gathered at a Margate hotel in the hope that Nigel Farage had won Thanet South. By dawn it was clear that Farage had lost. Stevens went down to the bathroom and spotted champagne glasses stacked ready for a victory party. These glasses of champagne may no longer be needed by Nigel Farages' electoral party, he posted on social media.

UKIP's revenge on the hotel press kit was swift, Stevens said on his podcast. The division bell. Every time someone asked to go down to the restroom, security would tell them: You can't use the restroom because of this —- John Stevens.

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Social abilities

Dame Prue Leith had a cheeky pop at Dame Mary Berry when asked what she thought of Mary's return to TV with her new BBC celebrity cooking show. Dame Prue was up for a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Guild of Food Writers Awards this week and said: “It's a good thing for her too, she's so good with poshos. Has a class war broken out between our leading ladies in the kitchen?

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Goves farewell tour

Michael Gove was noncommittal about whether his future lay in the House of Lords after polling day when I met him on the Tory battle bus. “If it were a pop concert, it would be a Rolling Stones farewell tour for me,” he said. I would be Mick and Jeremy Hunt would be Keith. And the MP? Rishi would be Justin Timberlake, he said. He paused. Oh no, he was just arrested for drunk driving, he said. Another break. Harry Styles ?

We will miss the governor.

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Lucy's Poppers

The Kings Birthday Honors prompted television historian Lucy Worsley to reflect on receiving her OBE from the then Prince of Wales in 2018.

On social media, she wrote: My own outfit was a 1960s velvet dress and bolero that I bought online…the dress was too small, so I had it cut into a skirt. But then there was a gap between the skirt and the short jacket. I was thinking about sewing snaps to hold the two items together… But I sewed the snaps while drinking a glass of wine and watching TV, which probably doesn't do the best job in the world. . At a crucial moment when the royal hand was extended to me, there was a loud noise! I had a blast.

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Peterborough, published every Friday at 7 p.m., is edited by Christopher Hope. You can reach him at [email protected]