Defined by lies, Boris Johnson's political career has finally crumbled
CBC
Boris Johnson's shaky relationship with the truth flowed through almost everything he did. It characterized much of his career, from his college days at the elite Eton school for boys all the way to 10 Downing Street.
Peddling long-held myths about immigration and European meddling paved the way for him to become prime minister and take his country out of the European Union, while "Partygate" cemented Johnson's aura as a leader who plays fast and loose with facts and rules.
On Thursday, after a tumultuous 48 hours and a string of resignations from his government, the British prime minister laid out plans for his own departure.
"In politics," he told reporters and staff assembled outside his official residence in London, "no one is remotely indispensable."
WATCH | British PM Boris Johnson announces his resignation:
Ultimately, though, it wasn't Johnson's own mistruths that brought him down after three years as Conservative leader. It was his insistence that others lie — sometimes unknowingly — on his behalf.
Sajid Javid, Johnson's health secretary until Tuesday evening, made his annoyances on this point clear in a speech in the House of Commons.
"This week again, we have had reason to question the truth and integrity of what we've all been told," Javid told MPs. "At some point, we have to conclude that enough is enough."
Javid pointed to "Partygate," the scandal involving boozy gatherings during COVID-19 lockdowns that led Johnson to become the first sitting British prime minister to be sanctioned by police. Javid said Johnson's team had assured him no rules had been broken, when they very much had.
After Javid's resignation, more than 40 other ministers and aides followed him out the door in protest of the prime minister.
Outgoing justice minister Victoria Atkins wrote, "I can no longer pirouette around our fractured values." Jo Churchill, who served as environment minister, added that "a jocular, self-serving approach" to the role of prime minister "is bound to have its limitations."
It's not like there hadn't been red flags.
Consider this warning from 40 years ago: "Boris sometimes seems affronted when criticized for what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility."
That's what Martin Hammond, who taught literature at Eton College, wrote in a letter to Johnson's father, Stanley, in 1982. The now-famous note was reprinted in a 2012 biography by Andrew Gimson when Johnson was mayor of London.
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