On your bike, Boris: Howard sacks Johnson over private life

Boris Johnson's short, chaotic career as a Conservative shadow minister ended last night when Michael Howard sacked him after one story too many about his private life had surfaced in the press.

Two tabloid newspapers are carrying fresh allegations this morning about Mr Johnson's relationship with fellow journalist, Petronella Wyatt.

Mr Johnson, a married man and father of four children, had brushed off earlier reports as "an inverted pyramid of piffle".

But Mr Howard himself seemed to give them credence earlier in the week, when he jokily described The Spectator magazine, which Mr Johnson edits, as "political Viagra".

He fired Mr Johnson from the Conservative front bench over the telephone yesterday, after being informed about the newspaper reports.

A party spokesman said: "In view of the fresh allegations made against Boris Johnson, Michael Howard has relieved Boris Johnson of his responsibilities as shadow minister for the arts and vice-chairman of the Conservative Party."

Mr Johnson's sacking deprives the Conservative front bench of its most colourful personality.

He is probably the only backbench MP whose name has been used as a football chant, and was the only politician to feature in a poll of young people about who they thought was "cool".

But many of his fellow MPs privately criticised him for not making up his mind which of his many roles mattered most to him.

As well as being MP for Henley, he is editor of the weekly magazineThe Spectator, a columnist for The Daily Telegraph, an author, and a television personality best known for his appearances on Have I Got News For You.

It was an unsigned editorial in The Spectator attacking Liverpool's reaction to the killing in Iraq of the hostage Ken Bigley, which caused what was - until yesterday - Mr Johnson's greatest public humiliation. The article accused Liverpudlians of "wallowing in grief", and set off a furious public reaction in the city. Mr Howard instructed Mr Johnson to go to Liverpool in person to apologise.

Last week, the Tory leader and his shadow arts minister appeared in public at the annual Spectator lunch, at which Mr Howard delivered a jokey speech describing the magazine as "political Viagra" - which his audience interpreted as a coded reference to the rumours about Mr Johnson and Miss Wyatt.

Miss Wyatt, whose father Woodrow Wyatt was a well-known journalist and a former Labour MP, worked as deputy editor of The Spectator when Mr Johnson was appointed editor in 1999.