Boris is taking a calculated gamble that this media-manufactured hysteria against him will subside before the next election in four and a half years' time, and that in the long term he is likely to be more of an asset than a liabilty to him.

I lived for many years in the road Dom lives in, and even before I left 11 years ago it had become a petri-dish for well-heeled liberal lefties. Dom will need balls of steel when he goes out with his kid in future. These people are smelling blood.