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His [Boris Johnson’s] government is presiding over the enriching of the richest, the impoverishment of the poorest & the greatest job insecurity in industry after industry. He has created poverty, inequality & insecurity. That is his legacy. Jeremy Corbyn to Boris Johnson, House of Commons 2022
Johnson leaves a scar on all who deal with him. Matthew Parris, The Times online article 8th January 2022
It would be nice to make the most of the lovely weather and have some socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden this evening. Prime Minister’s Private Secretary, memorandum 20th May 2020
A year ago a battle took place for the leadership of the country. This is the story of what went on behind the scenes. Some scenes have been dramatised … It’s a story of betrayals and backstabbings which handed victory to a Remainer. All in 20 days. Theresa vs Boris: How May Became a PM, captions, BBC 2017
‘There’s a lot of people we know who want a grown-up as leader, not a comedian or a gambler, and that is you, Theresa.’ ibid. non-discreet meeting
‘The kingdom at our feet there for the taking.’ ibid. Boris
‘The most dishonest electorate in history.’ ibid. George Hollingbery
‘Boris is a rock-star.’ ibid. Gavin
‘We are not dealing with a public or even a membership here but 331 Tory MPs – insincere duplicitous bastards.’ ibid. team Boris
‘Boris – I’m sorry you’ve been badly treated. Theresa.’ ibid. text
My chances of being PM are about as good as the chances of finding Elvis on Mars, or my being reincarnated as an olive. Boris Johnson, interview US television, cited Daily Telegraph 16 July 2007
My friends, as I have discovered myself, there are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters. Boris Johnson, cited Daily Telegraph 2 December 2004
The dreadful truth is that when people come to see their MP they have run out of better ideas. Boris Johnson
Well, er, pfft, um, it’s a good question, but er, I, I, I would, you know, I don’t, obviously, it’s an embarrassing but, but true that, um, er, it is obviously, possible, er, how should I put this, to make more money, er, by not being a full-time politician. Um, I don’t, I don’t want to put too finer point on it, er, but, you know, you have to, you have to, you have to, make sacrifices sometimes. Boris Johnson
Some readers will no doubt say that a devil is inside me; and though my faith is a bit like Magic FM in the Chilterns, in that the signal comes and goes, I can only hope that isn’t so. Boris Johnson, Daily Telegraph 4 March 2004
I think I was once given cocaine but I sneezed so it didn’t go up my nose. In fact, it may have been icing sugar. Boris Johnson, Evening Standard 17 October 2004
I have not had an affair with Petronella. It is complete balderdash. It is an inverted pyramid of piffle. It is all completely untrue and ludicrous conjecture. I am amazed people can write this drivel. Boris Johnson, cited Simon Walters, Mail on Sunday 7th November 2004, ‘Boris, Petsy and a Pyramid of Piffle’
Scandal of Brexit is not that we’ve failed, but that we have not tried. Boris Johnson
That dream is dying, suffocated by needless self-doubt. Boris Johnson, resignation letter
The whole thing is unbelievable. As I write these words, Gordon Brown is still holed up in Downing Street. He is like some illegal settler in the Sinai desert, lashing himself to the radiator, or like David Brent haunting The Office in that excruciating episode when he refuses to acknowledge that he has been sacked. Isn’t there someone – the Queen’s Private Secretary, the nice policeman on the door of No. 10 – whose job it is to tell him the game is up? Boris Johnson, article 10 May 2010
I would go further and say that it is absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes. Boris Johnson, cited Daily Telegraph 5th August 2018
Boris has wanted to be prime minister ever since I first knew him. Max Hastings
Boris is a gold medal egomaniac … His chaotic persona is not an act – he is, indeed, manically disorganised about everything except his own image management. He is also far more ruthless, and frankly nastier, figure than the public appreciates. Max Hastings, article Guardian 10th October 2012, ‘Boris Johnson: brilliant, warm, funny – and totally unfit to be PM
He is unfit for public office because it seems he cares for no interest save his own fame and gratification. Max Hastings, cited The Guardian 24 June 2019
Johnson would not recognise truth, whether about his private or political life, if confronted by it in an identity parade. ibid.
He is perhaps the most selfish human being I have ever met, indifferent to the welfare of anyone save himself. Max Hastings
He wanted to be top dog and he managed it pretty much. The Invention of Boris Johnson, woman, Channel 4 2019
Boris is his creation. ibid.
‘I was the Brussels correspondent [Telegraph] for about five years.; ibid. Boris
‘Quite the most hopelessly irresponsible Foreign Secretary I have ever known from any party.’ ibid. Kenneth Clarke
He’s one of Britain’s most controversial and colourful politicians. His career has often flirted with oblivion. Johnson’s adversaries say he’s disorganised, questioning his seriousness and his sincerity. Allies say judge him on past performance. Boris Johnson: Fit to be Prime Minister? Channel 4 2019
Donald Trump likes Brexit, but the thin-skinned president elect knows ‘that blond guy’ as he calls Boris Johnson has publicly attacked him in the past. ibid.
Boris Johnson loves playing games ... Boris Johnson is a formidable and unorthodox competitor. Boris Johnson: The Irresistible Rise, BBC 2013
The Eton- and Oxford-educated mayor of London has routinely broken the conventional rules of politics. ibid.
The tape was a recording of Guppy telephoning to ask Johnson to find the home address of an inquisitive journalist whom Guppy wanted to scare off. ibid.
Cameron excluded Johnson from his inner circle. ibid.
Johnson once more beat Livingstone. ibid.
I’ve never seen a campaign like it in forty years of reporting politics. The frontrunner Boris Johnson successful as a mayor, less so as a minister. And his rival Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary who took on the junior doctors. Panorama: The Race for Number Ten, Jon Pienaar, BBC 2019
Friends and enemies call him [Boris Johnson] irrepressible for a reason. ibid.
He and Boris Johnson both come from privileged backgrounds. ibid.
Brexit is the huge challenge facing the next prime minister. ibid.
The world turned upside down – in a matter of days Boris Johnson’s leadership fell apart. A scandal too far. Another story that didn’t add up. Panorama: The Downfall of Boris Johnson, BBC 2022
The prime minister himself was found to have broken the rules and broken the law. ibid.
In the end it’s simple: Tory MPs had just had enough … Many of them were sick of clearing up his mess, sick of not being able to trust what was coming out of Number Ten, sick of Downing Street’s attitude to the truth. ibid.