BORIS’S €58K IRISH GIG

FORMER UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson was paid more than €58,000 for a controversial appearance in Dublin last month, it has emerged.

According to Westminster parliamentary expenses records, Mr Johnson was paid a staggering £51,250 by Pendulum Events & Training to speak at the Pendulum summit at the Convention Centre.

At the event, Mr Johnson gave a speech in which he criticised border arrangements and said that his country would not be subject to tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The proBrexit politician and RTÉ presenter Bryan Dobson then took part in a Q&A session in which Mr Johnson jokingly tried to swipe Mr Dobson’s notes because of the grilling he had endured.

Mr Dobson also suggested to Mr Johnson that he had reversed his opinion on border customs and the backstop agreement.

Mr Johnson said that he ‘believed the assurances we had... when I was in government [were] that this backstop was just... a convenient fiction’.