DM1ST

(^6) DAILY MIRROR WEDNESDAY 24.07.
Oxford, scraping a 2:1 because he
could not be bothered to put in the
work to get a first. And also how his
career survived being sacked twice,
once from The Times and once from
the Conservative frontbench.
His ambition was behind his deci-
sion to run as London Mayor, which
the Tories initially thought was a lost
cause, but then won.
Mr Johnson has repeatedly used his
time at City Hall as a calling card,
citing triumphs including the 2012
Olympics or driving down crime. But
Charlotte’s breakdown, his father’s
infidelities and his parents’ bitter
divorce, which led to the young Boris
being packed off to boarding school.
It was while at Eton, seeking
approval and comfort, that he trans-
formed his personality into shambolic
and fun Boris to hide his intellect.
Now 55, the next PM is still described
by his closest friends as needy.
It explains much about how the
next PM can be both deeply insecure
and brashly arrogant at the same time.
It also shows how he got through
politan upbringing
in New York,
England and
Brussels as his
father Stanley
travelled the
world with work;
his fiercely compet-
itive relationship
with his siblings Jo,
Rachel and Leo and his
childhood ambition of
becoming “world king”.
But then came his artist mother
I lead a life
of blameless
domesticity...
BY PIPPA CRERAR Political Editor
HIS QUOTES
HIS GAFFES
My chances of being PM are
about as good as the chances of
finding Elvis on Mars, or my
being reincarnated as an olive.
My ambition silicon chip has been
programmed to try to scramble up
this ladder, so I do feel a kind of
sense that I have got too.
I have more in common with a three-
toed sloth or a one-eyed pterodactyl
or a Kalamata olive than I have with
Winston Churchill.
ON DONALD TRUMP: If he can fix
North Korea and if he can fix the
Iran nuclear deal then I don’t see
why he is any less of a candidate for
the Nobel Peace Prize than Barack
Obama.
ON NIGEL FARAGE: He has
always struck me as a rather
engaging geezer.
ON LABOUR POST TONY BLAIR:
They voted for Tony, and yet they
now get Gordon, and a transition
about as democratically proper as
the transition from Claudius to
Nero. It is a scandal.
ON PUTIN: Despite looking a bit like
Dobby the house-elf, he is a ruthless
and manipulative tyrant.
ON THE BBC: Why on earth can it
not produce something that is quite
as brilliant as Breaking Bad?
ON CANNABIS: It was jolly nice. But
apparently it is very different these
days. Much stronger.
I did briefly experiment with
veganism. It didn’t last. I think it
was the sheer cruelty of being
deprived of cheese.
We cannot turn our backs on Europe.
We are a part of Europe.
My faith is a bit like Magic FM in the
Chilterns, in that the signal comes
and goes.
I lead a life of blameless domesticity
and always have done.
I cannot swear I have always
observed the speed limit of 70mph.
The Tory party, the funkiest, most
jiving party on earth, is where it’s
happening.
We in the Tory Party have become
used to Papua New Guinea-style
orgies of cannibalism and chief-
killing.
I don’t know what a pint of milk
costs. So what?
GREETING Boris with Donald Trump
“watermelon smiles”. Last August he
said Muslim women wearing face veils
“looked like letterboxes”.
The new Tory leader was sacked as
party vice-chair and Shadow Arts
Minister after denying reports of a fling
with journalist Petronella Wyatt.
As figurehead of the 2016 Vote
Leave campaign, Mr Johnson repeated
the lie that the UK sent £350million a
A career of fibs,
bluster, blunder,
racism yet here
he is in No10...
BORIS Johnson today waltzes into
No10 despite a career littered with
gaffes, racism, U-turns and deceit.
As Foreign Secretary he said jailed
mum Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was
teaching journalism in Iran, when she
was on holiday with her daughter.
The blunder resulted in Tehran
extending her prison time, claiming it
proved she was lying and is a spy.
In 2002, Mr Johnson branded black
people “piccaninnies” with
BORIS JOHNSON, PM: THE

ETON

MESS

BORIS Johnson ended his cam-

paign to become Prime Minister

where it began 30 years ago, by

telling lies about the EU.

The latest untruth was about how

Brussels red tape was holding back

kipper smokers in the Isle of Man.

But his assertion quickly became

unstuck as it emerged that British

rules added the extra bureaucracy.

It was just the latest in a long series

of half-true and outrageous stories

from the buffoon who once steam-

rolled a 10-year-old boy during a

rugby demonstration and got stuck

halfway down a zipwire while

promoting the London Olympics.

The tall tales began when he was a

young Brussels correspondent.

He wrote that the EU wanted to

standardise coffins, the smell of

manure and the size of condoms.

“Everything I wrote from Brussels I

found was sort of chucking these

rocks over the garden wall,” he later

admitted. “And I listened to this

amazing crash from the greenhouse

next door over in England.

“It really gave me this, I suppose,

rather weird sense of power.”

That sense of power has entranced

Mr Johnson ever since, first as a jour-

nalist and then as a politician.

Asked once why he wanted to move

into politics, he told a friend: “They

don’t put up statues to journalists.”

The untruths and exaggerations did

not stop, as the country learned when

he led the Leave campaign.

His claims that the UK was sending

£350million a year to Brussels and

that Turkey was joining the EU

helped to deliver Brexit.

But his willingness to

face both ways as long

as it furthered his

career sowed

mistrust even on

his own side.

His decision to

write two articles,

one supporting

Brexit and one

opposing it, cast more

doubt on his convictions.

Many Tories suspect Mr

Johnson is not a true Brexiteer at

all and that if the political wind

changed so would he.

The mistrust of the new PM was

further deepened when he demon-

strated his willingness to flirt with

right-wing populism.

But he has laughed off criticism of

his racist and offensive comments,

including describing Muslim women

wearing burkas as “letter boxes”, black

people as “piccaninnies” and gay men

as “bum boys”.

He shrugged: “Occasionally some

plaster comes off the ceiling.”

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson’s

background is well known: his cosmo-

Bungling toff went from telling

tall tales about the EU to lead

Foreign Office... and now he’s

heading for Downing Street

FISHY Boris holding up a kipper as he

makes a wrongful claim about smokers

LOCKED UP

Brit Nazanin