Boris Johnson

A catalogue of lies, greed, arrogance and incompetence !!!


Boris Johnson: Three decades of scandals, blunders and rows

Gavin Cordon, PA Whitehall Editor
12 January 2022, 8:44 pm


Boris Johnson has survived a series of scandals, blunders and controversies which could have sunk other political careers.

Here are some of them:

– Journalism

In 1988 Mr Johnson was sacked from his first job in journalism as a graduate trainee on The Times for fabricating a quote.

In 1995 a recording emerged of a telephone conversation in which he agreed to provide an old friend, Darius Guppy, with the address of a journalist who was investigating him so that he could have him beaten up to the extent of “a couple of black eyes and a cracked rib or something like that”.
In the event Mr Johnson said he did not pass on the information.

As a columnist on The Daily Telegraph he faced accusations of racism and homophobia for describing Africans as “piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles” and referring to gay men as “tank-topped bum boys”.

In 2018, he caused further controversy with an article for the paper in which he described Muslim women who wore the niqab or the burka as looking like “letterboxes” and “bank robbers”.

– Personal life

The three times-married Mr Johnson has led a colourful personal life, with allegations of multiple affairs. He has never confirmed how many children he has fathered in and out of wedlock.

In 2004 he was sacked as a shadow minister by then-Tory leader Michael Howard for lying to journalists over reports he had an affair with the columnist Petronella Wyatt who said she had had two abortions.
While he was campaigning to be Tory leader in 2019, police were called to the flat of his girlfriend (now wife), Carrie Symonds, following reports of a noisy altercation between the pair.

His first Conservative Party conference as leader was marked by claims by the journalist Charlotte Edwardes that he squeezed her thigh during a private lunch when he was editor of The Spectator magazine. He denied the allegation.

– Jennifer Arcuri

Mr Johnson was investigated by the police watchdog over his relationship with the American businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri who said she had a four-year affair with him when he was London mayor.
In 2019, he was referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) over reports Ms Arcuri’s tech firm was able to access £25,000 in public funds and that she was allowed onto three overseas trade missions.

The IOPC found that while there was no basis for any criminal charges, Mr Johnson should have declared an interest concerning Ms Arcuri and that his failure to do so may have breached the London Assembly’s code of conduct.

He has denied any wrongdoing.

– Foreign Secretary

In 2017 Mr Johnson was accused of worsening the plight of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – the British-Iranian dual national held in Tehran on spying charges – after he wrongly claimed she was in the country teaching journalism.
Following his comments, Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who always maintained she was in Iran on holiday with her young daughter, was brought before a court and accused of engaging in propaganda.

– Standards

Following his resignation as foreign secretary, Mr Johnson was forced to apologise to Parliament for failing properly to declare outside earnings – totalling more than £50,000 on nine separate occasions.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards found the failings were not inadvertent and showed a lack of regard for the rules of the House.

– Priti Patel

Mr Johnson’s independent adviser on ministerial interests Sir Alex Allan quit after Mr Johnson overruled his finding that Home Secretary Priti Patel had bullied civil servants.
The Prime Minister said he did not accept that Ms Patel – a fellow Brexiteer – had breached the Ministerial Code which would normally meant she would have been required to quit.

– Covid-19

Mr Johnson was widely criticised for failing to attend a series of five Cobra meetings in early 2020 just as the virus was beginning to spread.

He controversially refused to sack his chief adviser Dominic Cummings over his notorious trip to Barnard Castle to “test his eyesight” while the country was in lockdown.

The Prime Minister came under fire for the chaotic way Christmas was cancelled for millions following the discovery of the Alpha variant and his slow response when the Delta variant emerged in India.
He reportedly said he would rather see bodies “piled high” than order a third national lockdown and was panned for his reluctance to wear a face mask in Parliament.

– The Downing Street flat

Mr Johnson was accused by Dominic Cummings, his former adviser, of secretly trying to arrange for wealthy Tory donors to pay for a lavish £112,000 revamp of his official flat over No 11.

Following an inquiry, his new adviser on ministerial interests, Lord Geidt, accepted that Mr Johnson had not known what was going on and when he found out he paid for the work out of his own pocket.

Lord Geidt reacted angrily when he learned later that Mr Johnson had exchanged WhatsApp messages with one of the donors involved, although he said it would not have changed his final conclusion that there was no breach of the Ministerial Code.

In a separate investigation, the Electoral Commission fined the Tory Party £17,800 for failing to properly declare a donation, part of which was originally used to help pay for the revamp.

 

you know its a little nice that your part of the world is in the news .......... taking some of the eyes of the world's eyes off here..........

 

With a C.V. showing 3 decades of failures - would you employ this little prick ???

 

Maybe so matey, but you don't have that little prick Boris to contend with.

 

No contrition and far, far too little and far, far too late !!!

 

He's apologised to Parliament, now he has had to apologise to Mrs Windsor, but where's 'our' apology ???

Come on Boris the peole want and deserve a fullsome, grovelling apology from you.

No 10 apologises to Palace for parties on eve of Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral

Geraldine Scott
14 January 2022, 0:14 pm
Downing Street has apologised to Buckingham Palace after it emerged parties were held in Number 10 the day before the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral last year.

Two gatherings reportedly took place at Downing Street, with the Prime Minister’s former director of communications James Slack apologising for the “anger and hurt” one of the events – a leaving do held for him – had caused.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister confirmed No 10 has said sorry to the Palace.

The spokesman said: “It is deeply regrettable that this took place at a time of national mourning and No 10 has apologised to the Palace.

“You heard from the PM this week, he’s recognised No 10 should be held to the highest standards, and take responsibility for things we did not get right.”

The day after the events on April 16, 2021, the Queen attended her husband Philip’s funeral wearing a face mask and socially distanced from her family at Windsor Castle, in line with Covid restrictions.

The PM’s spokesman said Boris Johnson was at his country residence Chequers on April 16 and had not been invited to the events.

Asked why No 10 had apologised rather than Mr Johnson himself, his spokesman said: “Well, again, the Prime Minister said earlier misjudgments have been made and it’s right people apologise, as the PM did earlier this week.

“It remains the case that I can’t prejudge the inquiry, which you know is ongoing, which has been led by Sue Gray, but we acknowledge the significant public anger, it was regrettable this took place a time of national mourning.”

It is understood the apology had been delivered via a telephone call through official channels.

It comes after Mr Slack, who until last year was Mr Johnson’s director of communications, apologised on Friday morning for the “anger and hurt” his leaving party had caused.

Mr Slack, who is now deputy editor-in-chief of The Sun newspaper, said he took “full responsibility” and was “deeply sorry”.

In an emailed statement issued by The Sun’s publisher, News UK, he added: “This event should not have happened at the time that it did.”

His party was one of two reported to have taken place that evening, which started separately and later merged.

The Daily Telegraph reported accounts from witnesses, who said alcohol was drunk and guests danced to music, with a person sent to a local shop with a suitcase to buy wine.

A Downing Street spokesperson said of Mr Slack’s event: “On this individual’s last day he gave a farewell speech to thank each team for the work they had done to support him, both those who had to be in the office for work and on a screen for those working from home.”

Conservative MP Sir Roger Gale said the gatherings were “wholly unacceptable” and confirmed he had submitted a letter of no confidence in Mr Johnson to the 1922 Committee of backbench MPs.

On Thursday evening his Tory colleague Andrew Bridgen became the fifth MP to have publicly said they had written to committee chairman Sir Graham Brady.


The Telegraph reported that as many as 30 letters have been submitted so far, with a total of 54 needed to trigger a vote.

However, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said people should “move on” following Mr Johnson’s apology over a previous bash on Wednesday.

Senior Conservative MP Julian Knight told Times Radio: “What I would say is that it will be charitable to say that partygate, if you like, is due to acts of extreme stupidity on behalf of those at No 10.”

Asked if that meant he thought the Prime Minister had been stupid, he said it applied to “anyone involved”.

Meanwhile, a councillor from the Sutton Coldfield Conservatives, an association in a safe Tory seat which withdrew its support for Mr Johnson on Thursday, said the move reflected “local views at the very grassroots levels”.

Councillor Simon Ward told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The conversation we had last night … was really about what I think we have the right to expect from our leaders and the standards of leadership we expect from them, and the trust that we put in them.”

At the time of the two newly-reported gatherings on April 16, Government guidance said: “You must not socialise indoors except with your household or support bubble. You can meet outdoors, including in gardens, in groups of six people or two households.”

It brings the total number of parties or gatherings alleged to have happened across Whitehall during restrictions to 14.

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister apologised for attending a “bring your own booze” party in the Downing Street garden in May 2020, during the first coronavirus lockdown, but insisted he believed it was a work event and could “technically” have been within the rules.

Members of the Government urged Mr Johnson’s critics to wait for the findings of senior official Sue Gray’s inquiry before passing judgment after Tory MPs began publicly calling for him to quit.

The Times reported that the inquiry was expected to find no evidence of criminality but that the investigation could censure Mr Johnson for a lack of judgment.

The newspaper said Ms Gray was expected to avoid concluding whether the Prime Minister breached the ministerial code, as this would fall outside her remit.

But she is set criticise the culture in Downing Street, it said.

The Metropolitan Police said there is no change to its position on investigating Downing Street parties amid fresh allegations of more gatherings taking place.

 

Remember that lying bastard telling us that he knew nothing about this party ??? Remember him saying it was a 'work event', remember him saying he spent just 20 minutes in the garden and then returned to work ??? This basterd has been lying through his teeth and now there is evidence to substaniate that !!!


ITV: Investigation finds email warning lockdown party should not go ahead

20 January 2022, 4:45 pm(Reuters) - An investigation into Downing Street parties has found an email from a senior official to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's private secretary warning that a May 20, 2020 party should not go ahead, ITV's political editor said on Thursday.

"I understand Sue Gray has found the email from a senior official to PM’s principle private secretary Martin Reynolds warning him the 20 May party should not go ahead," Robert Peston said on Twitter.

Johnson denied on Tuesday an accusation by his former adviser that he had lied to parliament about a lockdown party, saying nobody had warned him the "bring your own booze" gathering might contravene Covid-19 rules.

Johnson had already last week apologised to Parliament for attending the May 20, 2020 gathering in the Downing Street garden. He said he was there for 25 minutes to thank staff.

But Dominic Cummings, an architect of Britain's departure from the European Union and a former senior adviser who left government under acrimonious terms in November 2020, said that Johnson had agreed the drinks party should go ahead.

Cummings said that he and at least one other adviser told Reynolds that it should be cancelled.

Asked if he had lied to the public and parliament, Johnson told reporters on Tuesday: "No. Nobody told me that what we were doing was, as you say, against the rules ... I thought that I was attending a work event."

 

Boris Johnson lives in a world where every single element of his entire life can be found through technology. Sir Winston Churchill was very very far from a saint of a human being. Yet, the best and most honoured Prime Minister that this country has ever had. He pretty much single handley provided the democratic and free world we all get to live in today. Great leaders are sometimes not great human beings.

 

You are very sadly mistaken, Churchill was an unconvicted war criminal !!! - after the League of Nations (forerunner of the United Nations) banned the use of chemical weapons following the end of WW1, Churchill sanctioned the use of chemical weapons against the Iraqi population in order to foment a revolution, depose the elected government and impose a friendly Shah who would allow BP access to to its oil reserves.

Churchill was responsible for the debacle in the Dardenelles during WW1, he was also directly responsible for the loss of both Greece and Crete during WWII, and the fighting that took place at his insistance in Greece after the end of the war when the population voted for and wanted a CCommunist government.

 

I have no words for him, only SWEAR words

 

I would agree - BOTH of them !!!

 

Getting worse and worse for bastard boris, seems they're out to bury him in the deepest hole they can find, and if they do I would dance on his grave !!!


No 10 efforts to save Johnson are illegal, Commons standards chairman claims

Gavin Cordon
22 January 2022, 9:58 amThe senior MP who heads the Commons “sleaze” watchdog has warned Government attempts to pressurise Tory MPs seeking to oust Boris Johnson are illegal.

Chris Bryant, chairman of the Commons Standards Committee, said threats to withdraw public funding from MPs’ constituencies amounted to “misconduct in public office” and should be referred to the police.

He said there were even allegations the Prime Minister had been directly involved as he battles to save his job ahead of a keenly-awaited report into lockdown parties in Downing Street.

His intervention came after William Wragg, the senior Tory MP who first raised concerns about attempted “blackmail” by No 10, disclosed that he is to meet police to discuss his claims.

Mr Bryant, who is a Labour MP, said he had spoken to “about a dozen” Conservatives in recent days who had either been threatened by Government whips with having funding cut from their constituencies or promised funding if they voted “the right way”.

“I have even heard MPs alleging that the Prime Minister himself has been doing this,” Mr Bryant told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

“What I have said to all of those people is that I think that is misconduct in public office. The people who should be dealing with such allegations are the police.

“We are not the United States. We don’t run a ‘pork barrel’ system. It is illegal.

“We are meant to operate as MPs without fear or favour. The allocation of taxpayer funding to constituencies should be according to need, not according to the need to keep the Prime Minister in his job.”

Earlier, Mr Wragg said he would be meeting a Scotland Yard detective in the House of Commons early next week, raising the prospect police could open an investigation.

The disclosure came after Downing Street said it would not be mounting its own inquiry into the claims, despite calls to do so by both Conservative and opposition MPs.

A No 10 spokesman said it would only open an inquiry if it was presented with evidence to back up Mr Wragg’s assertions.

However, the MP, who chairs the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, said he believed an investigation should be for the “experts” in the police.
He told The Daily Telegraph that he would outline “several” examples of bullying and intimidation, in some cases involving public money.

“I stand by what I have said. No amount of gas-lighting will change that,” he told the newspaper.

“The offer of Number 10 to investigate is kind but I shall leave it to the experts. I am meeting the police early next week.”

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “As with any such allegations, should a criminal offence be reported to the Met, it would be considered.”

Mr Wragg’s latest intervention comes as No 10 is braced for the expected delivery next week of the report of Sue Gray, the senior civil servant investigating lockdown parties in Downing St elsewhere in Whitehall.

It is likely to lead to renewed calls from opposition parties for a police investigation if there is any evidence Covid rules were broken – including at a drinks do in May 2020 attended by Mr Johnson.

Mr Wragg, one of seven Tory MPs to have called publicly for the Prime Minister to resign, stunned Westminster with his allegations this week of a campaign of intimidation by No 10 amounting to criminal conduct.

Christian Wakeford, the Bury South MP who defected to Labour, later described how the Tory whips had warned him over funding for a new school in his constituency if he rebelled in a vote over free school meals.
Ministers have sought to dismiss the allegations, insisting the whips had no role in the allocation of public funding.

The latest disclosures will only fuel the febrile mood at Westminster, with Mr Johnson’s political survival hanging in the balance.

Mr Wakeford’s defection appeared to have put the plotting on hold as Tory MPs publicly rallied behind the leadership while the rebels largely went to ground.

However, the publication of Ms Gray’s report represents another moment of danger, potentially triggering a fresh wave of letters to the chairman of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady.

Under party rules there will be a confidence vote in Mr Johnson if 54 of the party’s MPs write to Sir Graham calling for one.

Mr Johnson is expected to spend the weekend at Chequers, his official country residence, ringing round potential rebels urging them not to plunge the dagger.

The Times reported the Prime Minister had reassembled the ministerial team which helped him mount his successful leadership bid in 2019
as he seeks to shore up support.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is reportedly playing a key role in the operation along with three former whips and other loyalists.

 

I think one Aussie would like Boris, Scott Morrison

 

We're willing to export him if you and Mr Morrison want him !!!

 

They would make a lousy couple of lousy politicians

 

Once he leaves the uk, we can try and persuade the Foreign Office to declare him an illegal alien (he was actually born in the us) and refure his re-entry !!!

 

Thinking political strategy .

Boris in charge of the Tory Government who in many peoples eye and mine, is a lame duck may be the ticket to a future Labour Government .

The longer Boris is in power the more resentment it will make . We have already seen the Bury South MP change sides as a result of his bungling leadership .

Just a thought I had

 

All politicians are in it for the power and the money.....Boris the Spider is NO exception

 

That is a very cynical view of politicians, and I have to say isn't true, as I have known some very good and very honest politicians, although I'll grant you that it is true of the vast majority of the scumbag 'nasty sleaze party' members.