Thursday, December 09, 2021

The Guardian View on Boris Johnson: A Stranger to Honesty

THE GUARDIAN – EDITORIAL: The scandal of a Downing Street party in lockdown reveals something rotten at the very heart of government

Boris Johnson’s career path is paved with falsehood. He was fired from his first journalism job for fabricating a quote. As a correspondent in Brussels, he traded in grotesque Eurosceptic mythology. In 2004, he was sacked from the Conservative frontbench for lies he had told to Michael Howard, then opposition leader, about an extramarital affair.

In the 2016 referendum campaign, he misled the public over the cost of EU membership. In the 2019 general election, he boasted about the qualities of a Brexit deal he now wants to renegotiate. No one who has followed the prime minister’s dysfunctional relationship with the truth now believes him when he denies knowledge of a Christmas party in Downing Street on 18 December 2020, in contravention of pandemic restrictions. » | Editorial | Wednesday, December 8, 2021