BORIS JOHNSON: The Labor Party looks venal and corrupt – and Taylor Swift's mother has made us look like a banana republic!

On my last full day as Prime Minister, I traveled to Lambeth, south London, to thank a group of very brave men and women who made my work possible. They were the heroes of the Metropolitan Police Special Escort Group.

These are the daredevil bikers who throw themselves into traffic in front of the Prime Minister's convoy, rain or shine. Blue lights flashing, whistles chirping, they make their way through rush hour with nothing to protect them except nerves of steel and the reflexes of a panther.

These are the daredevil bikers who throw themselves into traffic in front of the Prime Minister's convoy, rain or shine. Blue lights flashing, whistles chirping, they make their way through rush hour with nothing to protect them except

Time and time again I have seen a lone police motorcyclist charge at oncoming cars and stop them all by simply lifting his black leather glove. While every other driver seems to glare impatiently, you're waved fluidly forward onto the open road, minutes subtracted from your journey, minutes added to everyone else's.

Then it happens again, on every stretch of road, and it's all done with the stunt talent of Steve McQueen. From the back of the limousine, I watched with my heart in my mouth as they passed each other inside, or against the flow, looping around each other in an endless relay.

Sometimes, unfortunately, I saw them dismount once in Parliament Square, as the officer tried to avoid a protester, and once during a visit to a nuclear laboratory in Oxfordshire. The fact that accidents are relatively rare is a testament to their skill.

I rode one of their machines that day in Lambeth, and I can tell you: they're huge, they're heavy, they're freakishly fast, and if you fall off that bike at any speed , you will have difficulty going back. on.

Sometimes I saw Special Escort Group (SEG) officers injured so badly that they could miss work for months. What they do is extremely difficult, stressful and dangerous. It is no wonder that as a service provided by the government, it is expected to be quite exceptional.

As a people, as a society, we Brits don't much like the idea that our daily commute could be disrupted, just to speed up a politician's trip. We don't like it when a screaming, leather-booted emanation of the law arbitrarily stops our progress.

We don't like being whistled at, yelled at, or told to stay where we are because the state has decided that our time is less valuable than that of others. We are therefore different from many other countries, in that SEG motorcyclists are reserved for a tiny handful of British civil servants: the monarch, the Prime Minister; and for visiting senior heads of state or government.

To give you an idea of ​​how rare these arrangements are, I was Mayor of London for eight years and had no protection of any kind. I cycled through the streets in blissful solitude. Never, in my entire career as mayor, did I suggest to the police that a wealthy, distinguished visitor to London might need outriders, because that's simply not what we do in this country.

No matter how rich, famous or pressed for time they are, they wait in traffic just like everyone else. Better yet, they take public transportation. So I was in complete disbelief to learn that the new Labor government had decided in August to break with all tradition and give full SEG assistance to US pop star Taylor Swift.

What was it about Mrs. Swift that deserved this extraordinary privilege? Why has Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, apparently decided to depart from precedent in this way? Why would she and Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, rely on the police? We all know the answer, don't we?

That's because the Labor government is deeply and personally indebted to Taylor Swift, and they were terrified that she would cancel her August concerts.

The Home Secretary herself attended as the guest of her husband Ed Balls who received four free tickets. Bridget Phillipson, Lisa Nandy and several other ministers were present, some with their children. As for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, he had tickets for three of the concerts, and his two children were said to have attended twice.

I am one of those who is not yet fully awakened to the musical genius of Taylor Swift. I have trouble humming any of his songs. But I am aware that I am part of a minority here, and that millions of people in this country (I think of my daughters, for example) are under the influence of his orphic gifts*.

For many young people, the cancellation of his concert would have been a bitter disappointment, not least for the Starmer family, perhaps the Cooper-Balls family, and other Labor hierarchies. So when Taylor Swift's mother (who is also her manager) allegedly threatened to cancel the August leg of her UK tour unless her daughter was accompanied by a motorbike, they gave up and for no good reason.

Yes, there had been a threat about a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna, but that plot had been foiled. As the Mail reported yesterday, the Home Office's official assessment was that there was no additional threat to Taylor Swift in this country, or certainly not one that could be combatted with the use of the SEG.

We don't know exactly what conversations took place between Sue Gray RIP, Starmer's former chief of staff, Yvette Cooper and Sadiq Khan.

We don't know exactly how the police were convinced. Perhaps one day the full details will emerge, as retired SEG members come together to form “Swift Bike Veterans For Truth.” What I believe I can say with absolute certainty is that this was not an “operational” decision.

It was a political decision. This was not based on risk to Taylor Swift or any of her sites. This was based on an utterly despicable and cowardly desire to appease the demands of Taylor Swift's mother and give her daughter the flashing blue lights and Outriders that we usually give a visiting head of state.

Where will this end? How many other visiting celebrities will have Outriders in their “rider”? Starmer and company, most of them accepted free tickets; they excited their children about the concert; and while there seemed to be a risk that the concert wouldn't go ahead, they saw no harm in spending taxpayers' money to fix the problem and getting the police to do something they wouldn't would never do otherwise.

Giving Taylor Swift an SEG escort after accepting free tickets is exactly like giving Waheed Alli a pass to Downing Street after accepting thousands of pounds worth of clothes and glasses. The Labor Party looks venal and corrupt, and Taylor Swift's mother has made us look like a banana republic.

In just a few weeks it looks like Labor Chancellor Rachel Reeves will crush the country with a huge tax rise. I still believe that this is not necessary.

If you want to understand how Labor wastes your money, look at how we provide ceremonial police officers to America's billionaire pop stars, so that Labor ministers' children can attend their concerts for free.