Deputy Mayor Ray Lewis in the news

Coverage left, right and centre today over the allegations against Ray Lewis, one of Boris Johnson’s deputy mayors (e.g. The Times).

A few points to note:

1. The Bishop of Chelmsford has said that, “Between 1999 and 2005 Ray was placed under the formal disciplinary structures of the Church of England and his ministry was restricted.” This is a very different story from Ray Lewis’s own public statements.
2. This however hasn’t stopped ConservativeHome saying that, “the left-leaning media have jumped on this story with relish, pre-judging him with little more than some disjointed insinuations.” Hmm… I think most people would describe having a Bishop give such a different story from the Deputy Mayor on the key issue of whether he was disciplined for past misbehaviour as rather more than a disjointed insinuation. There’s a lot that we don’t yet know but somehow I think that if a Labour or Liberal Democrat blog was trying to defend one of its own against similar allegations and used that phrase they’d be taken apart by ConservativeHome and other right-wing blogs. And quite right too.
3. And finally, an unfortunate choice of words. In responding to the allegations of, amongst other things, sexual misconduct, Ray Lewis said: “sometimes I rub people up the wrong way.”