Boris Johnson has repeatedly refused to answer questions about police being called to a loud altercation with his partner, in an evasive and flustered performance in front of the Conservative grassroots.
The Tory leadership favourite blocked – on three occasions – an interviewer’s attempt to extract an explanation for the incident that has cast a shadow over his bid for Number 10, at the first hustings.
Instead, Mr Johnson insisted the audience of Conservative members wanted to “what my plans are for my country and for the party”.
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“I don’t think they want to hear about that kind of thing,” the former foreign secretary claimed, speaking in Birmingham.
Trying to change the subject, Mr Johnson said: “People are entitled to ask about me my determination and my character. When I make a promise in politics, I keep that promise and I deliver.”
1/5 Made-up quote for The Times
Johnson was sacked from The Times newspaper in the late 1980s after he fabricated a quote from his godfather, the historian Colin Lucas, for a front-page article about the discovery of Edward II’s Rose Palace. “The trouble was that somewhere in my copy I managed to attribute to Colin the view that Edward II and Piers Gaveston would have been cavorting together in the Rose Palace,” he claimed.
Alas, Gaveston was executed 13 years before the palace was built. “It was very nasty,” Mr Johnson added, before attempting to downplay it as nothing more than a schoolboy blunder.
PA
2/5 Sacked from cabinet over cheating lie
Michael Howard gave Boris Johnson two new jobs after becoming leader of the Conservatives in 2003 – party vice-chairman and shadow arts minister.
He was sacked from both positions in November 2004 after assuring Mr Howard that tabloid reports of his affair with Spectator columnist Petronella Wyatt were false and an “inverted pyramid of piffle”. When the story was found to be true, he refused to resign.
PA
3/5 Broken promise to boss
In 1999 Johnson was offered editorship of The Spectator by owner Conrad Black on the condition that he would not stand as an MP while in the post. In 2001 he stood – and was elected – MP for Henley, though Black did allow him to continue as editor despite calling “ineffably duplicitous”
PA
4/5 Misrepresenting the people of Liverpool
As editor of The Spectator, he was forced to apologise for an article in the magazine which blamed drunken Liverpool fans for the 1989 Hillsborough disaster and suggested that the people of the city were wallowing in their victim status.
“Anyone, journalist or politician, should say sorry to the people of Liverpool – as I do – for misrepresenting what happened at Hillsborough,” he said.
PA
5/5 ‘I didn’t say anything about Turkey’
Johnson claimed in January, that he did not mention Turkey during the EU referendum campaign. In fact, he co-signed a letter stating that “the only way to avoid having common borders with Turkey is to vote Leave and take back control”. The Vote Leave campaign also produced a poster reading: “Turkey (population 76 million) is joining the EU”
1/5 Made-up quote for The Times
Johnson was sacked from The Times newspaper in the late 1980s after he fabricated a quote from his godfather, the historian Colin Lucas, for a front-page article about the discovery of Edward II’s Rose Palace. “The trouble was that somewhere in my copy I managed to attribute to Colin the view that Edward II and Piers Gaveston would have been cavorting together in the Rose Palace,” he claimed.
Alas, Gaveston was executed 13 years before the palace was built. “It was very nasty,” Mr Johnson added, before attempting to downplay it as nothing more than a schoolboy blunder.
PA
2/5 Sacked from cabinet over cheating lie
Michael Howard gave Boris Johnson two new jobs after becoming leader of the Conservatives in 2003 – party vice-chairman and shadow arts minister.
He was sacked from both positions in November 2004 after assuring Mr Howard that tabloid reports of his affair with Spectator columnist Petronella Wyatt were false and an “inverted pyramid of piffle”. When the story was found to be true, he refused to resign.
PA
3/5 Broken promise to boss
In 1999 Johnson was offered editorship of The Spectator by owner Conrad Black on the condition that he would not stand as an MP while in the post. In 2001 he stood – and was elected – MP for Henley, though Black did allow him to continue as editor despite calling “ineffably duplicitous”
PA
4/5 Misrepresenting the people of Liverpool
As editor of The Spectator, he was forced to apologise for an article in the magazine which blamed drunken Liverpool fans for the 1989 Hillsborough disaster and suggested that the people of the city were wallowing in their victim status.
“Anyone, journalist or politician, should say sorry to the people of Liverpool – as I do – for misrepresenting what happened at Hillsborough,” he said.
PA
5/5 ‘I didn’t say anything about Turkey’
Johnson claimed in January, that he did not mention Turkey during the EU referendum campaign. In fact, he co-signed a letter stating that “the only way to avoid having common borders with Turkey is to vote Leave and take back control”. The Vote Leave campaign also produced a poster reading: “Turkey (population 76 million) is joining the EU”
Some Tory members booed when the interviewer, broadcaster Iain Dale, pursued the issue of the police being called to the flat he shares with his girlfriend.
Mr Johnson won applause when he told the audience: “Look at my determination to deliver for people who vote for me. When I say I will deliver X, I generally deliver X+10.”
He claimed: “Most people would really rather judge my ambitions and my character and my programme.”
Mr Johnson’s campaign has been destabilised by the domestic dispute at the south London flat he shares with his girlfriend Carrie Symonds, a former Tory aide.
Ms Symonds was heard screaming and telling the 55-year-old Tory leadership favourite to “get off me” and “get out of my flat”.
A recording of the incident, on Thursday night, revealed Mr Johnson shouted at Ms Symonds to “get off my f***ing laptop” before a loud crashing noise was heard.
She was heard complaining that he had spilled red wine on her sofa, before adding: “You just don’t care for anything because you’re spoilt. You have no care for money or anything.”
The neighbour who recorded the row told The Guardian: “There was a smashing sound of what sounded like plates. There was a couple of very loud screams that I’m certain were Carrie and she was shouting to ‘get out’ a lot.”
Speaking later, Jeremy Hunt, Mr Johnson’s leadership rival, turned on the frontrunner – branding him a “populist” and “the wrong person” to send to Brussels.
“If we send the wrong person, catastrophe awaits,” the foreign secretary told the Tory faithful.
“If we send the wrong person, there will be renegotiation, no trust and no deal – and, if parliament stops that, maybe no Brexit.”
He pledged not to “provoke a general election before we have left the European Union”, adding “that would kill us” and put Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street.
“Faced with a hard-left populist, we could choose our own populist, or we could do better – we could choose our own Jeremy,” Mr Hunt argued, to applause.
Both candidates claimed to be able to negotiate an improved Brexit agreement with the EU, but without explaining how – given the EU’s absolute refusal to reopen talks.
Mr Hunt matched Mr Johnson by vowing to crash out of the EU on the 31 October deadline if his efforts failed, saying he would do that “100 per cent“, although it would not be his choice.
Mr Johnson also admitted he did say “f**k business”, while insisting it was “one stray remark to the Belgian ambassador” that had been “wrenched out of context”.
Parading his pro-business credentials, he said – in a comment certain to be seized on by Labour – that “I can’t think of anyone, after the crash in 2008, who stuck up as much for the bankers as me. I stuck up for them day in and day out”.
The “f**k business” attack had been targeted at “very powerful lobby groups who wanted to have a particular type of exit – or non-exit – from the European Union”, he said.
