A PYRAMID OF PIFFLE...

Knife crime

He claimed “knife crime went down” and “we cut the murder rate by 50%” while Mayor from 2008 to 2016. Reality: The murder rate fell by 39% between 2008 (155) and 2014 (94) but by 2016 was back up to 109, a 30% fall on 2008. Knife offences in 2008/09 were 9,937, against 9,738 for 2015-16, a 2% fall.

Foreign relations

Mr Johnson said he had helped boost the UK’s “soft power superpower” during his two years as foreign secretary.

Reality: His claim Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was working in Iran, not on holiday, seriously damaged her case. He compared the EU to Nazis, made racist comments about Barack Obama and wrote a poem about the Turkish president having sex with a goat.

Political office

In 2014 he was fired as Shadow Arts Minister for misleading then Tory leader Michael Howard, right, about his affair with Petronella Wyatt, a columnist at the Spectator magazine, which Mr Johnson edited at the time. The Tory MP insisted that he had never spoken about the affair with Mr Howard.

Journalism

As a young reporter, Mr Johnson was sacked from The Times in 1988 for making up a quote in an article. He later said he had just “mildly sandpapered something someone said”, in this case making up two sets of quotes made by the historian Colin Lucas, who also happened to be his godfather.

The battlebus NHS lie

Mr Johnson unveiled a Vote Leave campaign bus which had on its side the figure of £350million – which was claimed to be the amount sent to the EU every week and which could be spent on the NHS post-Brexit. Reality: Once rebates, grants and payments are taken into account the net figure is £185million a week.