At 9pm on Sunday, the Daily Telegraph published online a glowing endorsement of Boris Johnson by the former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi. Headlined “Get ready for Boris 2.0, the man who will make the Tories and Britain great again”, the piece set out a case for why the former prime minister would imminently return triumphant to Downing Street.
Unfortunately for Zahawi, his piece was published at the exact moment that Johnson told reporters he was dropping out of the leadership contest. Within minutes, the Telegraph had made the unusual decision to wipe Zahawi’s article from the internet without following the standard journalistic practice of offering an explanation or leaving an editor’s note.
