WHO’S A SNORTY BOY!
In 2007 egomaniac Johnson ‘vividly’ recalled taking cocaine but yesterday he dodged drugs question as he launched his bid to be our Prime Minister
BORIS Johnson opened his Tory leadership challenge yesterday by ducking questions about his cocaine past.
The PM hopeful, who boasted about his drugs use in a 2007 GQ interview, refused to clear up the claim. He said: “The account of this event when I was 19 has appeared many, many times.”
Fellow leadership contender Michael Gove may have fatally damaged his own campaign after he admitted taking cocaine.
Boris ducks questions over cocaine use
BORIS Johnson may have batted away questions about cocaine, but as soon as the bluster ended the past came back to haunt him in those he spoke to about drugs use.
The Tory leadership favourite finally broke cover yesterday but was under fire for ducking questions during a speech in which he refused to clear up claims he had used the white powder.
And there was confusion as to how Mr Johnson’s drugs past could be shrugged off so easily while the same admission by leadership rival Michael Gove threaten to scupper his campaign.
He was also grilled about his crass statements on Muslim women looking like letterboxes – which sparked shameful jeering by his supporters in the audience – his Brexit stance and his trustworthiness after a career filled with gaffes, lies and U-turns.
But his drugs past brought the most scrutiny and when he was asked whether he had taken it before, he said: “The account of this event when I was 19 has appeared many, many times.”
He then went on the waffle about what he would do as PM and boasted about his record as London mayor – all in front of a “Back Boris” logo. He said: “I think what most people in this country want us to focus on is what we can do for them and this great country.”
But GQ magazine republished the original interview with Piers Morgan online, in which Mr Johnson claimed he “tried it at university”, so that readers could see for themselves. GMB presenter Morgan later said: “The upside to Boris becoming PM is he would have to deliver on all his Brexit promises. No more blaming everyone else. It would all be on him.”
Mr Johnson came under pressure to apologise for his comments about Muslim women – which follow other racist diatribes, including calling black people “piccaninnies”.
But when he was told his remarks had “brought shame” on the Tory party, the reporter asking the questions was booed by his cronies. Rambling about how politicians have become too sterile because they are not allowed to speak freely, he said lamely: “Occasionally some plaster comes off the ceiling as a result of a phrase I may have used, or the way that phrase has been wrenched out of context by those who wish for reasons of their own to caricature.”
Mr Johnson – sacked from the Times in 1998 for making up a quote in an article – lost trust with his Brexit battle bus emblazoned that claimed the UK sent £350million a week to the EU. He said he wanted it spent on the NHS.
The official UK statistics authority disputed the sum, which missed out the rebate and did not represent the total economic costs and benefits of EU
membership. The figure paid is closer to £250million a week. The former Foreign Secretary vowed to force through Brexit by October 31 with or without a deal.
But more moderate Tory MPs claim he has told them he wants to avoid a damaging no-deal – and plans to take a softer approach towards Brussels.
He said in his speech no-deal was a “vital tool for negotiation” then immediately added that he was “not aiming for” it. And he risked fuelling Brexiteer fears that he could change his mind by refusing to say whether he would resign if he fails to deliver.
Hours later, Labour lost an important symbolic bid to block a no-deal departure in the Commons by just 11 votes. Eight Labour MPs rebelled and supportive Tories stayed away. Tory Dominic Grieve, who backed Labour’s motion, said he was prepared to bring down the Government to stop no-deal.
More than 80 Tory MPs have publicly declared for Mr Johnson ahead of a vote today and he looks on course to be in No 10.
But GQ mag reprints article of drug boasts
OVER the years, we have seen crooks, drunks and charlatans serve as Prime Minister but surely there has been nobody so unfit for the post as Boris Johnson.
That he is the favourite to succeed Theresa May is a reflection on the appalling judgment of the current crop of Conservative MPs.
The Tories are on the verge of entrusting our future to a man who has been sacked twice for lying, and is a serial philanderer and a cheat.
His personal failings are matched only by his poor judgment and dismal record in office.
The casual racism, such as calling black people “piccaninnies”, is especially unpleasant.
And let us not forget that after his “letterbox” jibe against women wearing the hijab he was blamed for a rise in hate crime.
You can add to the charge sheet his endangering the life of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe when he was Foreign Secretary.
Johnson is now trying to present himself as a one-nation Conservative while, at the same time, promising tax cuts only for the rich.
He is out of touch and out of his depth, and should be out of contention.