Boris spiked
Boris Johnson , Issue 1644 THE Daily Mail's star signing Boris Johnson continues to earn every penny of his million-pound fee.

"Today President Zelensky was in the White House, to sign what I believe is an excellent deal for both Ukraine and America," he pontificated in his column for Saturday 1 March's paper, penned ahead of the Ukrainian leader actually setting foot in the Oval Office.

"It is barely more than a month since his inauguration, but Trump is changing the global conversation in important ways – and in favour of honesty and progress," Johnson enthused, assuring his readers: "This does not, repeat not, mean that Trump wants to betray Ukraine, or even to decouple from Europe... I am optimistic, first because Putin has all sorts of reasons to try to get out of the mess he has made, and second because the Trump White House – read the agreement – is committed to a sovereign Ukraine."

Classic timing
The column went live on the Mail website at 4.51 on Friday afternoon. Precisely 35 minutes later, Trump and JD Vance launched their furious attack on the Ukrainian president.

At 6.22pm, the Mail's social media honchos released the video plug Johnson is contractually-obliged to record for each of his outpourings – coinciding almost precisely with President Trump's own furious posting that Zelensky could "come back when he is ready for peace".

Both column and video were scrubbed from the internet soon afterwards. And there was no sign of Johnson in his usual slot in Saturday's paper, where the front page declared the confrontation between Trump and Zelensky "A SPECTACLE TO HORRIFY THE WORLD".

Valentine's Day gift
Online readers could at least re-enjoy the former PM's 14 February offering, in which he declared: "To listen to the wailing at the Munich Security Conference you would think that Donald Trump has pulled out of Nato and cravenly capitulated to the Kremlin... the valiant Volodymyr Zelensky has been sold down the Dnieper, that Ukraine is done for and that a new darkness covers the face of Europe" – something Johnson dismissed as "the usual anti-Trump hullabaloo of the liberal media".

That presumably now includes those campaigning loudly for Trump's invitation to a state visit to be withdrawn as punishment for his behaviour – the Mail titles!