We have ways of making you squawk, Boris..
BORIS Johnson kept his beak shut yesterday as the Mirror Chicken challenged him over whether he had ever taken drugs.
Our feathered friend tackled the Tory, who is top of the leadership pecking order, over his fowl play in dodging questions on cocaine.
As we reported yesterday, in 2007, birdbrain Boris told GQ magazine: “I tried it at university and I remember it vividly. And it achieved no pharmacological, psychotropical or any other effect on me whatsoever.”
But then, in 2008, he did a U-turn and claimed: “To say that I have taken cocaine is simply untrue.”
The Mirror Chicken swooped as Boris left his South London home, demanding he set the record straight on whether he had ever taken cocaine.
But he got in a flap and refused to answer, before being plucked away by a waiting car. So for now, a straight and honest answer from Boris remains as rare as hen’s teeth.
But the cocaine row isn’t the only scandal that may come home to roost as he vies for the Tory crown.
The former Mayor of London – who once described the £250,000 he made writing his Telegraph column as “chicken-feed” – has ruffled feathers with past comments that include describing black people as “piccaninnies” and gay men as “bum boys”.
So while he is hoping for a leadership coop, he shouldn’t count his chickens before they hatch...
■ At last the elusive Boris Johnson has launched his campaign for the Tory leadership and unsurprisingly many of his past faux pas came back to haunt him (Mirror, June 13).
For him to try and shrug off some of his outlandish statements on a host of issues which demeaned various communities in our multicultural and liberal society, as well as dodging questions over his alleged cocaine use, beggared belief.
Is this now what the Conservative Party stands for?
So much for a ‘broad church’ approach to politics.
It will be a very sad day for this country if he is elected.
Mike Thorne Bath, Somerset
■ It seems extraordinary that at a time when the NHS, local authorities, schools and a range of other public services are starved of cash, Boris Johnson announces that he will raise the higher tax threshold from £50,000 per annum to £80,000. As millions suffer from the cruel effects of Universal Credit or belowthe-breadline wages, Johnson chooses to increase the incomes of middle-class earners. But I suppose if he’s trying to win the votes of some 120,000 well-off Tory Party members, it makes a degree of sense, even if it is unfair and immoral.
Paul Methven Winscombe, Somerset
■ Boris Johnson said the electorate wanted two things from the next Prime Minister – to focus on what they can do for people, and to deliver Brexit. Well Boris, are you not aware that your party has failed on both counts?
But please don’t despair as there is one thing that you could do for the people of this country – and that is to call a general election. Harold Ennis, Ruardean, Glos
■ It is staggering that Boris kicked off his campaign to become the next prime minister with a promise to raise the tax threshold for his rich mates and the country’s top earners. What about people who are in poverty, pensioners struggling to survive and minimum wage earners? Obviously we’re not all in it together. Anthony Treadwell Atherstone, Warks
■ Boris has pledged to cut tax for people earning over £50,000 and partly pay for it with higher National Insurance contributions. But if there’s money to be given away it should go straight to the NHS and social services. This Tory candidate would be a disaster for Britain if he was to become PM, and would probably lose the Tories the next election. D Hughesdon, South London
■ Boris Johnson is showing himself to be an out of touch Tory with his plans for a £10billion tax giveaway for big earners. I am not sure which is worse – his lack of feeling or care for the just about managing, or his gross stupidity. Howard Gardner, Sale, Cheshire
■ The sooner Boris Johnson becomes prime minister, the sooner we will leave the EU, the sooner everyone will see the mistake and the sooner we can negotiate our return. Any other solution would leave the country even more disunited. RJ Smith, Basingstoke, Hants