Johnson and Osborne had ‘fight in a lift after dinner’
BORIS JOHNSON had a fight with fellow Tory George Osborne in a lift – and a one-night stand with a mystery woman, a new biography claims.
The bust-up with Mr Osborne happened after the pair had dinner in Beijing while on a diplomatic trip to China in 2013, according to journalist Tom Bower.
At the time, Mr Johnson was mayor of London. In the book, being serialised in The Mail On Sunday, Mr Bower wrote: ‘At the end, the two men stepped into a small lift. Osborne’s bodyguard decided to walk down the stairs.
‘During the ride down, the two men grabbed each other and fought. When the doors opened on the ground floor, both walked out without showing emotion.’
It is unclear what triggered the alleged fight but, that day, both men had given speeches boasting of how their daughters were learning Mandarin. Earlier in 2013, Mr Johnson joined the then chancellor Mr Osborne and prime minister David Cameron at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Mr Bower claims married Mr Johnson left a meal with the pair early – without paying his share of the bill – to meet an Englishwoman. ‘The brunette would never forgive him for making it a one-night stand and remains one of his most vocal critics,’ he wrote.
Mr Bower also details frequent rows between Mr Johnson and Mr Cameron, who regarded his fellow Old Etonian as ‘untrustworthy’. In turn, Mr Johnson was said to have dismissed the PM as a ‘second-rate’ man. He allegedly told an MP: ‘I dimly remember Cameron [at Eton] as a tiny chap known as Cameron minor.’ Downing Street declined to comment.