What's different about this book is the place it could take in Boris Johnson's efforts to define himself after Downing Street (Photo: Les Kasyanov/Global via Getty) The title of Boris Johnson's forthcoming memoir – Unleashed – invites the question of when exactly he was last on a leash. Certainly as Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister, he was a law unto himself. This was the quality that both delivered him electoral victory and then brought him crashing down.
Perhaps Johnson felt constrained during his unhappy two years as foreign secretary, when Theresa May cannily burdened him with serious duties and packed him off abroad, but I doubt much of this book will be about that. Anyway, the message is pretty clear: if you thought he was mercurial, disruptive and provocative before, then you ain't seen nothing yet. His party will no doubt feel wary of exactly what an "unleashed" Boris will involve, particularly given that the release date – and accompanying publicity – for the book is scheduled for early October.
The tome itself, public speaking appearances and (presumably) extensive newspaper serialisation will land just after the key "beauty parade" of the remaining four Conservative leadership candidates at the Birmingham conference, and continue amid the next round in which MPs will whittle the hopefuls down to the final two. In other words, BoJo will be "unleashed" at the most sensitive and crucial time in the Conservative Party's efforts to relaunch and recov.