#025 The Depravity of Boris Johnson
The Most Reprehensible Prime Minister Britain Has Ever Known
Boris Johnson, the current prime minister of the United Kingdom, is so morally depraved and bereft of integrity, he debases the very office he holds, and like the one term president Donald Trump in the United States, he can seriously be considered the worst prime minister and leader Britain has ever known.
Here are eight reasons as to why,
- He lies and distorts the truth very often.
There are many examples of this, not least the lies that lead to him getting sacked by The Times newspaper and also by ex-tory leader Michael Howard in 2004.
Peter Oborne’s website cataloguing Johnson’s unending lies, https://boris-johnson-lies.com/, alongside his book, are a good place to start,
as are these articles,
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/60-lies-boris-johnson-tory-21065956
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-lies-caroline-lucas-b1837619.html
Peter Stevanovik also makes excellent videos exposing some of his lies, this one in particular being viewed tens of millions of times.
https://www.indy100.com/news/susanna-reid-peter-stefanovic-boris-johnson-b1923227
https://fullfact.org/news/dawn-butler-boris-johnson-lying/
Below are some more of the most blatant and egregious times Johnson has lied,
- The time Johnson was confronted by the father of an ill child in a hospital and had the audacity of claim “well actually there are no press here” whilst glancing at the press to his left whilst being recorded by Sky News, among other national broadcasters and newspapers.
- The time Johnson claimed “Actually, I didn’t say anything about Turkey in the referendum… I didn’t say a thing about Turkey,” despite being recorded several times doing so.
https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-boris-johnson-falsely-claims-he-didnt-say-anything-about-turkey-in-the-referendum-campaign - The time Johnson lied about there being covid rule breaking parties in Downing Street and then later pictures were released showing him attending and drinking at the rule breaking parties he said didn’t happen.
- The time Johnson lied about there being no threat to the Erasmus scheme, which was later ended as part of the EU-UK trade & security deal.
- The time Johnson lied about the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, claiming, “(Khan) effectively bankrupted Transport for London before coronavirus even hit.”
- The time Johnson lied about Labour and Keir Starmer apparently voting against plans for a 2.1% pay rise for nurses, a pay increase Johnson himself has reneged on.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-accused-misleading-parliament-23663021?111= - The time Johnson lied about employment figures going up between 2022 and before the pandemic.
https://fullfact.org/economy/january-2022-boris-johnson-employment/ - The time Johnson or his ministers made nine claims that simply weren’t true about the brexit trade deal - https://www.euronews.com/2021/01/05/brexit-trade-deal-nine-claims-by-boris-johnson-or-his-ministers-that-are-untrue
- The time Johnson misled Parliament over Covid contracts, https://goodlawproject.org/update/johnson-misled-parliament/
- The time Johnson’s inaccurate claims regarding child poverty figures, were exposed, explained below,
Notably, only 26% believe Boris Johnson tells the truth generally, according to this poll,
Johnson also breaks manifesto and election promises and pledges such as the 2019 pledge not to increase the rates of income tax, national insurance or VAT.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/3-tory-manifesto-promises-boris-24929759
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58401767
Johnson has additionally mislead parliament dozens of times, which should lead to resignation under the ministerial code.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-false-statements-parliament-b2018410.html
2. He has frequently said or written offensive, racist, sexist and homophobic statements, many of which have been recorded and publicised in articles like these below.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/uk-boris-johnson-modern-day-enoch-powell-racism-tension
- One specific example would be a Spectator column he wrote, which casually included the passage “an almost Nigerian interest in money”, deploying an offensive racial stereotype.
- Another example comes from a 2002 article where Johnson wrote, “The continent [Africa] may be a blot, but it is not a blot upon our conscience…The problem is not that we were once in charge, but that we are not in charge any more.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-colonialism-africa-british-empire-slavery-a9564541.html - A third example is Johnson’s defence of the Oxford university statue of Cecil Rhodes, a well known imperialist and racist. Johnson claims to move the statue would be somehow “editing history”, a classic conservative position, which implies nothing can ever be changed updated or re-assessed.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-statues-rhodes/pm-johnson-says-statue-of-colonialist-rhodes-should-not-be-pulled-down-idUKKBN2431NT - A fourth example could be when Johnson shouted the sexist insult “you great big girl’s blouse” across to Jeremy Corbyn, the then leader of the opposition, to infer Corbyn was somehow cowardly or weak, the same year a memo was leaked revealing Johnson describing former prime minister David Cameron as a “girly swot”.
- A fifth (set of) examples of Johnson’s homophobic comments can be found here - https://descrier.co.uk/politics/boris-johnson-7-lowlights-from-23-years-of-homophobia/
- A sixth example was when he addressed Emily Thornberry, then Shadow Foreign Secretary, as “Lady Nugee”, the title of her husband, as part of his casual sexist derision.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-43556887 - Finally, the most senior person in the Runnymede Trust, the UK’s leading independent race equality think tank, has gone as far as to claim Johnson’s government of ‘pursuing a white nationalist agenda’.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/dec/29/uk-government-accused-pursuing-white-nationalist-agenda-runnymede-trust
3. He has cheated on his partners many times suggesting he is loyal only to himself and his own interests and will betray even those personally close to him.
He also backs rule cheats in his cabinet, for example his secretary of state for housing, communities and local government Robert Jenrick MP,
https://news.sky.com/story/the-1bn-development-and-the-tory-donor-the-robert-jenrick-controversy-explained-12014447
&
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/exclusive-robert-jenrick-new-cash-favours-row/
Equally his fury was illuminated when he enacted revenge toward a tory backbencher, removing the whip, for refusing to agree to the stitch up
Johnson has also tried to cheat in parliament by trying to ensure his favoured MP (Chris Grayling MP) would chair the new Intelligence and Security Committee by directing tory MPs who to vote for, whilst at the same time publicly claiming the election of a chair was a matter for MPs on the committee, it failed spectacularly,
https://news.sky.com/story/dr-julian-lewis-has-tory-whip-removed-after-running-against-pms-security-committee-chair-pick-12029301
Moreover Johnson has faced civil service resignations “following concerns that Downing Street may be trying to undermine parts of the EU withdrawal agreement”,
https://news.sky.com/story/jonathan-jones-head-of-governments-legal-department-quits-over-pms-reported-brexit-plan-whitehall-sources-say-12066488, and even brought forward legislation to “break international law in a very specific and limited way” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54073836
Further scandals & sackings here,
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/dec/10/scandals-and-sackings-why-critics-say-boris-johnson-is-not-fit-to-be-pm
4. He wrote an article whilst a tory MP in 2005 urging fox hunters to break the law and continue killing foxes, claiming the law was actually a ‘marxian attack on the upper classes’. Someone one advocates breaking the law in such a brutal fashion and is willing to use nonsense to justify such an action is clearly unfit to hold high office.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-fox-hunting-sexual-illegal-ban-a9624846.html#Echobox=1595061022
5. He orders his members of parliament to abstain on vital votes in parliament such as on keeping the £20 per week universal credit top-up payment - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-britain-welfare-idUSKBN29N1XG, or on taking action to remove flammable cladding from buildings more quickly - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/grenfell-cladding-london-tory-vote-b1796015.html.
Johnson even whipped his MPs to vote through an amendment to scrap Parliament’s anti-corruption procedures, after it ruled that a Tory MP, Owen Paterson, had repeatedly acted corruptly, before completely u turning the next day following the backlash from the public, opposition and even his own MPs.
6. His handling, negligence and poor decision making, throughout the Covid 19 coronavirus pandemic & wider crisis, which arguably makes him responsible for mass manslaughter on a national scale, some examples of which are,
- Johnson’s decision to discharge patients to care homes without Covid-19 tests, https://fullfact.org/health/coronavirus-care-homes-discharge/
- Johnson’s decision to fail to close the borders at the start of the pandemic and allow infected people with the virus, old strains and new, into the country for months and months
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-uk-borders-priti-patel-b1789985.html - Johnson’s decision to miss many COBRA meetings on the virus and ignore calls to order personal protective equipment.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-38-days-when-britain-sleepwalked-into-disaster-hq3b9tlgh - Johnson’s track & trace programme failures https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-britain-newwave-me-idUKKBN28411Q
- Boris Johnson instructing conservative MPs to vote against a labour bill to have free school meals be extended over the holidays to stop children going hungry, a campaign lead by the footballer Marcus Rashford.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/oct/21/marcus-rashford-in-despair-as-mps-reject-free-school-meal-plan - Johnson initially ignoring the scientist’s calls for a ‘circuit breaker’ in response to the second wave, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/coronavirus-sage-lockdown-restrictions-boris-johnson-covid-cases-b997055.html, then just over two weeks later bringing in a month long lockdown from 5th November 2020, performing a giant U-turn in the process - https://news.sky.com/story/boris-johnson-instead-of-leading-the-uk-from-the-front-the-pm-has-been-forced-to-act-12120424?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter
- Johnson, after claiming it to be “frankly inhumane” to cancel Christmas 2020 and criminalise people one day, a few days later (Saturday 19th December) brought in the infamous tier 4 restrictions to London and the South East and cancelled Christmas for millions of people, revealing both his hypocrisy and his (late in the day) incompetence in the process.
https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-christmas-lockdown-is-boris-johnsons-biggest-u-turn-of-all-12167541. - Johnson opening up the economy too early after the first wave, in the middle of 2020, and the Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme which research has found drove new COVID-19 infections up by between 8% and 17%,
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/centres/cage/news/30-10-20-eat_out_to_help_out_scheme_drove_new_covid_19_infections_up_by_between_8_and_17_new_research_finds - Johnson refusing to reward nurses for their heroic work throughout the pandemic with an insulting 1% pay rise in March 2021,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56288237 - Johnson not only grossly mismanaged the pandemic from a public health perspective, revealed by the colossal excess deaths figures relative to other developed countries, but his decisions will also severely damage the UK economy, at time of writing, the OECD estimate that the UK economy will suffer the worst COVID-19 damage of any country in the developed world.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/coronavirus-uk-economy-recession-oecd-report-a9558191.html
Many links containing particularly standout pieces of journalism, exposing and exploring the crisis that came from Johnson’s handling and decision making during the Covid 19 coronavirus pandemic are below:
“No more f**king lockdowns, let the bodies pile up in their thousands”
(Boris Johnson, late 2020), https://www.channel4.com/programmes/second-wave-did-govt-get-it-wrong-dispatches/on-demand/72421-001
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53028509
UK hits 150'000 COVID-19 coronavirus deaths,
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/27/uk-covid-deaths-pass-150000-milestone-analysis-shows
Boris Johnson himself “now admits he should have brought first Covid in lockdown sooner”,
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-now-admits-should-23719353
Boris celebrates capitalist greed,
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-credits-greed-capitalism-vaccine-success-speech-tory-mps-1922-committee-927534?ito=social_itw_theipaper&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1616545853
Boris exposed as saying “No more fucking lockdowns - let the bodies pile high in their thousands!”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-dominic-cummings-lockdown-b1837326.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56890714
Boris even received a police fine for breaking lockdown rules, the first prime minister ever to have broken the law in office, but not the first time he was found to have acted unlawfully…
7. He tried to prorogue (suspend/shut down) parliament for five weeks, later ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court. This was one of the most scandalous and anti-democratic events ever to occur in the history of British politics and was an unprecedented attack on the very foundation of our national democracy, without justification. Johnson, and his government, tried to prevent parliament, and particularly the house of commons, exercising its constitutional role.
For this reason Boris Johnson should be held in complete contempt by any person who values representative democracy over tyranny.
“The court is bound to conclude therefore, that the decision to advise her majesty to prorogue parliament was unlawful because it had the effect of frustrating or preventing the ability of parliament to carry out its constitutional functions without reasonable justification”
(Brenda Hale, Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, 2019)
Boris Johnson’s actions have, on more than one occasion, represented an affront to democracy.
https://www.businessinsider.com/boris-johnson-russia-report-affront-to-democracy-cross-party-letter-2020-6?r=US&IR=T
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/breaking-boris-johnson-blocks-no-27462239
History now shows, start to finish, Boris Johnson was the true danger to Britain & British democracy.
8. Johnson met (and continues to supply weapons to) known murderer of journalists and war criminal Mohammed Bin Salman, leader of Saudi Arabia, on friendly terms in 2022.
And on it goes…
Even Johnson’s former top advisor Dominic Cummings has criticised Johnson on the basis of “competence and integrity” and has even said, “lies so blatantly, so naturally, so regularly” that he sees “no real distinction” and that “[Mr Johnson] regularly admits it’s ludicrous he’s prime minister”.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57722457
In 2019, it seems Boris Johnson’s constituent had it absolutely right.
UPDATE (2023):
