Eddie Mair described him as a “nasty piece of work”
Boris Johnson wants to be prime minister of the United Kingdom, of that there is no doubt. It’s all he’s ever wanted to be and with Theresa May now resigning from 10 Downing Street it appears that the path to leadership is as clear as it’s ever been for the old Etonian.
Johnson has already attempted to appeal to the Brexiteers in the Conservative Party by telling them that he would happily take the United Kingdom out of the European Union without a deal if it came down to it.
He is already the heavy favourite to replace May ahead of such inspiring names like Sajid Javid, Rory Stewart and Andrea Leadsom, and the Independent reports that he is apparently attracting support from various wings of the Tory party.
Johnson should not be prime minister though, which should be obvious to sensible people. He is out of touch with working class people and seemingly happy to remain that way, he has been pictured having meetings with Nigel Farage and Steve Bannon – which gives some indication of what sort of rhetoric we can see from him in the coming weeks, and his 2004 comments on the people of Liverpool suggest that he has both a serious lack of empathy and contempt for those not from his social class.
The man who edited and published this should never become Prime Minister of this country. pic.twitter.com/ayaP38z0gz
— GaryJEvans (@gjevans70) May 24, 2019
As his candidacy for the Tory leadership gains momentum, an interview from 2013 has resurfaced and – like almost everything Johnson has done throughout his life – it is evidence of why he should not be the leader of the United Kingdom.
In the clip below, Johnson is grilled by Eddie Mair on his integrity and is presented with a number of incidents from throughout his life before being asked to explain them.
Johnson admits during the grilling that he had “sandpapered” quotes during his time as a journalist at the Times, fails to deny lying to former Tory leader Michael Howard over an extramarital affair, and admits once giving the phone number of a journalist to an old friend he knew was intent on causing physical harm to the person who owned it.
He tries to squirm out of answering the questions and attempts to change the subject a number of times, but is ultimately left unable to deny the central crux of the conversation, the fact that, as Mair says, he is “a nasty piece of work”.
This interview should tell you all you need to know about Boris Johnson, as Eddie Mair says "a nasty piece of work" pic.twitter.com/qPDwVy8o6L
— Giles Paley-Phillips (@eliistender10) May 24, 2019
