The man who rose to power through lies, unruly attitude

Britain’s soon-to-be-ex-prime minister Boris Johnson has “a long and well-documented history” of evading the truth while acting as if he should be exempt from the normal rules of conduct, a report has highlighted.

“Over the years, he has routinely been described as mendacious, irresponsible, reckless and lacking any coherent philosophy other than wanting to seize and hold on to power,” wrote the New York Times in a Friday news analysis about how Johnson rose through the ranks as a former journalist and politician, insisting, however that he never “fooled anyone about who he really was.”

“People have known that Boris Johnson lies for 30 years,” the article then added, quoting British writer and academic and former Conservative member of parliament, Rory Stewart. “He’s probably the best liar we’ve ever had as a prime minister. He knows a hundred different ways to lie.”

“Mislead, omit, obfuscate, bluster, deny, deflect, attack, apologize while implying that he has done nothing wrong” has been Johnson’s “blueprint for dealing with a crisis” during his tenure as prime minister, his critics emphasize as cited in the article. — “That approach worked for him for years — until finally it didn't.”

The daily further points out, “After a lifetime of swaggering and dissembling his way through one scandal after another on the strength of his prodigious political skills — a potent mix of charm, guile, ruthlessness, hubris, oratorical dexterity and rumpled Wodehousian bluster — Boris Johnson has finally reached the end.”

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According to press reports, Johnson’s government experienced scandal after scandal, much of it centered on his own behavior and was censured by his administration’s own ethics adviser after a wealthy Conservative donor contributed tens of thousands of pounds to help him refurbish his apartment.

“There was an almost farcical accrual of embarrassing disclosures about how often Mr. Johnson’s aides (and sometimes Johnson himself) attended boozy parties during the worst days of the COVID lockdown, flagrantly violating rules the country had set for itself,” the daily then noted.

In the end, it added, Johnson’s different explanations for what he knew, and when, about Chris Pincher -- a Conservative legislator accused of sexual impropriety – “finally tipped the scales against him. It was clear that he had once again failed to tell the truth.”

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is under mounting pressure for "lying" about not being aware of Tory MP Chris Pincher

The article also recalled that after helping engineer the downfall of “his competent but lackluster predecessor Theresa May” in 2019, Johnson entered office with an energetic mandate for change.

“His populist message, buoyant personality and easy promises to cut taxes and red tape, free Britain from the burdens of belonging to the European Union and restore the country’s pride in itself appealed to a public weary of the brutal fight over the Brexit referendum and eager to embrace someone who appeared to be expressing what they themselves felt.”

In 2016, serving simultaneously as mayor of London and an MP, Johnson betrayed then Conservative Party leader, prime minister David Cameron, when he led the pro-leave side of the Brexit debate, contrary to the party’s position, according to the report.

Serving as foreign secretary under May, who succeeded Cameron, Johnson stabbed her in the back — and set the stage for his own accession to the job — by resigning from the government and publicly denouncing the Brexit agreement she had spent months negotiating.

The article further point out that Jonson’s “womanizing and affairs” were an open secret during his long marriage to his second wife, Marina Wheeler, the mother of four of his (at least) seven children. “They separated when his affair with a Conservative official, Carrie Symonds, now the mother of two of the seven, came to light,” it noted.

This is while Johnson has “at least one other child -- a daughter born during a liaison with a married adviser when he was the (still-married) mayor of London -- in the early 2010s,” added the report.

Endgame for UK’s Johnson amid flurry of resignations, scandals

Boris Johnson government in the UK is on the verge of collapse amid a blitzkrieg of resignations of key ministers, withering reception to the embattled premier in the parliament and public declarations of no-confidence in his leadership.

“I would not take Boris’s word about whether it is Monday or Tuesday,” Max Hastings, the Telegraph editor who hired Johnson as his Brussels correspondent, once said as quote in the article.

In 2019, it added, when Johnson was poised to become prime minister, Hastings wrote an article entitled “I was Boris Johnson’s Boss: He is Utterly Unfit to be Prime Minister.” In it, he described Johnson as a “cavorting charlatan” who suffered from “moral bankruptcy” and exhibited “a contempt for the truth.”

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