In the pantheon of UK premiers, Johnson must claim his place as among the most scandalous, say experts
ou have to go back a century, to the radical “Welsh Wizard” David Lloyd George, to find a British prime minister judged as controversial and as indifferent to the rules asThe Liberal leader was a “very scandalous figure, who did have the qualities needed to see the first world war through to a successful conclusion, but he split the Liberal party, and he had a slush fund paid for by the sale of peerages”, said Andrew Gimson, author of Gimson’s Prime Ministers.
Johnson detractors may have accused him of misleading – or, as the former Speaker John Bercow put it, of having “an insouciant and flippant disregard for the accuracy of what he says to the House of Commons” – but others may characterise it as “more often wishful thinking or exaggeration”, Gimson said.
“He had more flaws than the Shard. But also extraordinary once-in-a-generation political gifts; the ability to read politics, to see a big picture, to communicate, and to be liked, far and wide,” he added. He had relished it, “solely because it enabled him to advance his own interests, not because he had a vision of how Brexit would benefit his country.” And his Tory predecessors would be “aghast” at his inability to explain how such momentous upheaval would bring economic gain, he said. Unlike Thatcher, who submitted to long media interviews to justify her actions, Johnson had not given a single interview of that kind, Lord Lexden added..
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