Boris Johnson interview, continued ...

"When I came back, I knew that I should have jacked in the shadow spokesman's job," he says. "I told [the whips] this is almost impossible, but they decided that it would be a bad scene if i went because of the Liverpool thing." So his personal life was used as an excuse for Howard to save face? "Yeah. God, it's bollocks. But that's showbiz. Please don't say I'm all aggrieved and seething, because I'm not. It is just politics." He makes clear that he will not answer any questions about his current domestic arrangements.

His editorship will be remembered as a particularly frisky time for the "Sextator". With the publisher Kimberly Fortier (now back from maternity leave) caught in an ill-starred affair with David Blunkett, and columnist Rod Liddle leaving his wife for the receptionist, did he regret that his era had provided plenty of amusement for the wider media? "They can't guffaw at the figures," he replies referring to circulation, which he has taken to 70,000, an all-time high. "I think it's in the nature of rival publications that they will try to knock you. But not a single reader got in touch to complain."

What of The Spectator's future? There are rumours that Neil seeks more control by moving the staff out of this fine Georgian townhouse. Here Johnson does proffer an opinion. "It would be a tragedy if the magazine moved away," he says. The irreparable damage to the distinct Doughty Street culture would be "criminally insane". But then, he adds, "I have no reason to think that's his intention. He certainly hasn't told me."

Nor has Neil given Johnson any indication of who will succeed him. One name rumoured to be favoured is Iain Martin, editor of Scotland on Sunday and formerly of The Scotsman, although Neil claims that the search for a replacement is only now beginning. Johnson refuses to name his preferred choice ("It would be the kiss of death"). And the suggestion, said to be on Neil's agenda, of turning The Spectator's website into a feistier, more influential British version of the Drudge Report?

"Andrew is right to want to expand the site," he says. "Newspapers have serious problems - if I want a hit of news, I'll just turn on my computer. Sometimes I don't even look at the newspapers." That does not say much about the Barclays' £665 million investment in the Telegraph Group... "Brilliant, brilliant decision," Johnson fires back. "Worth every penny."

No regrets, then? "None I can think of. I'll miss this place, best job in London, and I have had more fun than is strictly proper. Just the joy of cooking something up and getting a piece that's better than you could have thought. How could I possibly complain? It's been incredibly kind of Conrad Black and the Barclays to allow a Conservative MP to edit a national magazine for a very long time. The fact is, I've had a wonderful six-and-a-half years. That's longer than Charles [Moore], Frank [Johnson], Dominic [Lawson]. You shouldn't stay forever."

Why, then, so subdued today? That, he says, is simply to avoid offending his hardworking colleagues in the next room. "I don't want to boom away, that's all it is." Then he yawns. "Sorry, I wrote 12,000 words this weekend for my new book on Europe, it's just killing me. I did another 2,000 words this morning. I would be more chipper, honestly.

"So please don't go saying I'm all downbeat. Actually, I'm shattered," he says. "Shattered."

(Evening Standard, December 14 2005)