Boris Johnson’s personal affairs can’t be off limits when they’re this entangled with his public actions

Editorial: Recent allegations against the prime minister are just as worthy of journalistic enquiry as the unlawful advice he offered to the Queen on the prorogation of parliament

Is Boris Johnson entitled to a private life? Of course he is, and in many important respects even the most unruly elements of the media have behaved as what he might describe as a “model of restraint”.

The Johnson children have been left alone. His estranged wife, who has a life and career of her own, has been kept out of the coverage for the most part. A number of his past liaisons, their circumstances and consequences, have been kept confidential. Even the stories about Carrie Symonds have been remarkably straightforward. She, too, has work and ideas of her own, and is not some mere adjunct to Project Boris.

When she has found herself to be the story, as with the police being called to a noisy incident with Mr Johnson in her flat, it was certainly not at her instigation.