Sir Geoffrey Cox MP: From lawyer to Tory MP to tabloid press sensation

Sean O’Grady considers Sir Geoffrey Cox’s career trajectory, from popular Tory MP to making the headlines for all the wrong reasons

Sir Geoffrey, it seems, has become synonymous with a certain sort of attitude, a certain arrogance (Getty)

It’s a funny old world isn’t it, as someone once said. In the latest condemnation of his alleged conduct, a Conservative colleague of Sir Geoffrey Cox MP calls him “an arse”, which is probably not defamatory. Sir Geoffrey, it seems, has become synonymous with a certain sort of attitude, a certain arrogance, and is a net negative for the Tories’ poll ratings. He has taken over from Owen Paterson in the sleaze headlines. No 10 has let him hang in the wind.

Yet not so very long ago, Geoffrey Cox was dominating the headlines in every paper, all over social media, the very focus of the nation’s attention and provoking intense reactions in Conservative circles – and for all the right reasons. For a few days in October 2018, he was the darling of the Tory press. There was overexcited talk about the then attorney general being the next party leader and prime minister.

The activists, starved of confidence after the previous year’s disastrous election, were ecstatic about Sir Geoffrey’s bravura performance at the Conservative conference. It was the first time they had tasted the rich fruity baritone, the baroque delivery, and his near-erotic display of erudition. His 12-minute speech at the Birmingham arena was billed as a mere warm-up act for the prime minister Theresa May. In the event, he stole her limelight and almost her job. Not so difficult, true, but he also displaced Boris Johnson, then a marginalised and unhappy former foreign secretary, something that must have hurt and perturbed Johnson in equal measure.