The Londoner: PM’s pal Arcuri: I want to come home to London

In today's Diary: Jennifer Arcuri interview as her new book comes out | London hotel staff face an "avalanche of redundancies" | Neil Kinnock's Biden memories | Michaela Coel on colourblind casting | Keir Starmer, style icon
Tech Entrepreneur Jennifer Arcuri poses for a photograph in her hotel suite on November 19, 2019
Getty Images
17 July 2020

Boris Johnson’s one-time close friend Jennifer Arcuri is hoping to move to the UK, she tells The Londoner, on the publication of her first book.

Arcuri had wanted to move back from the US East Coast sooner but this has been halted by coronavirus. “Every time I’ve tried to come back something’s hit. I have the intention of coming home,” she told us.

Last year it was alleged that Johnson had improperly favoured Arcuri’s tech businesses when he was London mayor, during which time it was alleged the pair may have been intimate. The Independent Office for Police Conduct chose not to investigate. Johnson denied any wrongdoing.

Arcuri’s book Hands-On Hacking, demystifying the world of complex computing, co-written with Matthew Hickey, is published this week. “This is the first time these kind of skills are condensed in a book that allows you to learn while reading,” she said.

"The book takes you step by step through technical concepts, and doesn't just give you the definitions, it teaches you how to do it. It breaks down complicated topics step by step."

Arcuri, who will appear on Channel 4 reality show Celebrity Hunted, plans to send a copy to Downing Street. Remembering sharing other books with the PM — they are both Shakespeare fans — Arcuri teased: “There was once upon a time… but that’s a whole different story.” Maybe for her next volume.

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HARD times for the discreet London hotel concierge. With employers having to contribute to furlough payments from next month, some of the best hotels in the capital are cutting staff. Dave Turnbull, of union Unite, warned us of an “avalanche of redundancies” in customer-facing roles, possibly replaced by an app in some. Turnbull warned that visa changes for EU nationals at the end of the year meant they might not come back.

Henry Chango Lopez, president of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain said: "We're seeing a swarm of redundancies ... I've never seen anything like it. Just weeks ago, frontline workers were being applauded by the nation and now they're being fired in their hundreds." How sad.

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Redferns

MICHAELA COEL is breaking the US with her BBC show I May Destroy You, but she doesn’t want it to be about race. “There wasn’t a quota that I was trying to fill,” she told the Obsessed With... podcast. “Susy was Scottish [in earlier drafts] and then... I suddenly realised she was black,” Coel said, before noting that black people can be Scottish too. We get her point.

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SW1A

CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag

Donald Trump and family have been mocking Joe Biden for his history with Labour’s Neil Kinnock. Biden’s 1987 run for Democratic presidential nominee was cut short when he plagiarised a Kinnock speech. Lord Kinnock says Biden now has his backing. “I hope, for everybody’s sake, that he’ll beat Trump,” he tells us. “The world will be a safer place.”

He recalled Biden once jokingly introducing him to staff as “my greatest speechwriter”, but said he wasn’t expecting to be hired this time: “Thankfully, my speechwriting and making days are over. Millions might applaud.” Surely not.

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GC Images

KEIR STARMER, style icon. Since hairdressers returned to work, Labour staffers have noticed a trend spreading among male colleagues. A short back and sides, with Sonic the Hedgehog swoosh on top. Westminster barbers take note.

Dua leaps back into the studio after lockdown

Dua Lipa strikes a pose in a leotard in New York, where the singer has returned to the studio after spending lockdown in London with boyfriend Anwar Hadid. Rapper AJ Tracey had a fun day in Milan.

Meanwhile, Tilda Swinton posed in PPE with director Pedro Almódovar on the first day of their new film — as Natalie Portman also urged fans to follow her masked example.

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