The race for British PM: Boris Johnson dogged by doubts over his character

Conservative party leadership candidate Boris Johnson during the first party hustings at the ICC in Birmingham. Photo / Getty Images

The race for British Prime Minister has suddenly become a contest all about character.

And so it's been a rough few days for front-runner Boris Johnson, seen as either the next Winston Churchill or an entertaining dissembler, depending.

Pretty much everyone expects Johnson to win the contest — unless he does something to trip himself up. And there's been some tripping up already.

Last weekend, the Guardian ran a scoop about an argument that brought police to the apartment Johnson, 55, shares with girlfriend Carrie Symonds, 31.

Johnson's challenger, the Foreign Secretary and multi-millionaire in the smart suit Jeremy Hunt, accused Johnson of dodging debates and press interviews, which he was. "So don't be a coward Boris, man up and show the nation you can cope with the intense scrutiny the most difficult job in the country will involve."

To calm the waters, a "friend" released a gauzy romantic photo of Johnson holding hands with Symonds in a meadow on a sunny hilltop. Date of photo unknown. Location uncertain.

Johnson refused to comment on the picture.

Conservative party leadership candidate Boris Johnson during the first party hustings at the ICC in Birmingham. Photo / Getty Images

A columnist at the Times did not break any new ground when she wrote about Johnson having "three mistresses on record, an abortion and at least one love child".

Whether this stuff hurts or helps Johnson is untested. Conservative Party activists want a winner and the thinking is that Boris is a winner: that he can deliver Brexit, beat back challenges by populist Nigel Farage, and best Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the next general election.

The most recent survey, by Survation, found that 45 per cent of Tory voters still backed Johnson, compared to 34 per cent for Hunt. The race has tightened in a week.

The Economist illustrated a cover with an image of Johnson half done up in clown makeup, with the headline: "Which Boris would Britain get?" Max Hastings, who edited the Daily Telegraph when Johnson was the paper's Brussels correspondent, called Johnson a "brilliant entertainer ... unfit for national office, because it seems he cares for no interest save his own fame and gratification."

Conservative politician Jesse Norman said: "Boris is different in many ways from the public caricatures. He has the capacity to re-energise the government, resolve the deadlock over Brexit, and above all keep this country away from the very dangerous policies of the Labour Party."

And journalist Quentin Letts wrote in the Sun: "The Establishment is appalled, astonished, aghast. PM Boris? They shake their heads in despair that we ill-washed voters are unable — not clever enough — to share their view. How DARE he be so popular?"