The Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson (2024) s01e01 Episode Script

1
PRODUCER: Can you
give her a place to put that?
I'd love the charger. Oof. THUD
Don't worry, I just hit my
head on that. So sorry.
Agh. HE GRUNTS
HE SIGHS
I think we are good to
mark it, if everyone's happy.
Brilliant. Let's make sure
phones are on silent as well,
especially mine.
And hang on a second.
Yep. That's great. And mark.
I would like to look inside
Boris Johnson's head.
He's not who he wants to
be. I've always thought that.
I don't think Boris
Johnson knows who he is.
He's not a serious person.
Uh, he's not serious.
He's just not a
man of conviction.
This is an opportunist.
You sit him next to
someone at a dinner party,
and he'll be in agony.
He'll offer to give a
speech or anything
just to avoid
having a one-to-one.
What a wimp.
What a spineless coward.
The fact is that if he
walks down a high street,
people stop their cars to get
out and have a selfie with him.
Hey, chubby, chubby,
chubby, chubby, chubby.
There is a huge brain behind
those glittering blue eyes.
I-I am fond of him because
he's a very kind person.
I think if somebody makes
you laugh, you forgive them a lot.
Boris stole my legacy,
and took the credit for
all the things I initiated.
We are all complex
creatures at the end of the day,
the public facing bit isn't
always the whole story.
Do you know who I know?
Because I know a different
guy than what you think.
REPORTER: What are
you up to, Mr Johnson?
This century,
no-one has done more to
shape the destiny of our country
than Boris Johnson.
Oh, my God it's a pasty.
The pasty of independence.
NEWSREEL: Over the weekend,
cases of a mysterious respiratory
virus have more than tripled.
I have, I still have
a temperature.
The biggest Tory
majority since 1987.
We are entering the Boris
Johnson era for British politics.
Ukraine will win.
But no-one has had
a bigger downfall.
He enjoys life's
pleasures, hugely.
Jennifer, where are
you? I want to see you,
enough of this. Kiss me.
Kiss me. This is my
city! And I was like
SHE GASPS
Go, go, go. Go!
He was having to apologise to
the Queen about those parties
the night before
Prince Philip's funeral.
Was that a moment
of shame for you?
Boris is the most powerful
liar in British history.
I don't want to forgive him.
Trouble is I like him.
They're gonna drag your
carcass out of this place.
And I can't bear
to see that happen.
What do you do with
a problem like Boris?
A hero or a liar?
Why don't you
sort it out, Boris?
His story is Britain's story.
He literally had the world
at his feet, and he blew it all.
There's, in a way, the
tragedy. I-I think it is a tragedy.
You're not gonna learn any
lessons, and you're not gonna change.
You're not capable of changing.
Well, I don't know quite about
that. This is all about you in the end.
The reason these things
happened is because of you.
He'll tell you himself,
when I want something,
I go and I get it. And I
don't stop until I get it.
The recklessness, the brashness,
there's definitely a
streak or two of that.
And most people get
really hot and bothered,
you know, that he is
this very narcissistic,
you know, womanising
The reality is it comes from a
place of insecurity and severe trauma.
He was tremendously
keen on my writing
a life of him.
And then he started
to get cold feet,
and he said, "How much are
you being paid to do this book?"
And I wouldn't tell him because
it was a very modest amount.
And then he started
trying to buy me out.
And every time I met him,
he offered me more
money not to write the book.
He said, if it's a
piss take, that's fine,
a comic book.
But he said, "Nothing could
be more damaging than a book
"which told the truth about me."
Stanley, you are a celebrity.
You can get yourself out of
here. Stanley Johnson, everybody!
Long before Boris's
dad's celebrity fame.
..before his election to
the European parliament,
Stanley Johnson's grandfather,
Ali Kemal, was a
Turkish journalist
who was kidnapped and murdered.
His body parts
placed in a hollow tree.
Stanley's grandmother
died soon after childbirth,
and their son, Osman
Ali, was raised in England,
where he changed his
name to Johnny Johnson
and joined the RAF.
But after a plane crash left
him burned and severely injured,
Johnny became an alcoholic,
often beating his wife
in front of their son,
Stanley.
To scratch a living,
they bought a remote
sheep farm on Exmoor.
Well, Stanley gave me a
tour of this ancient stone farm,
very remote, no mains
electricity or anything,
almost a prison.
In this building I found
Boris Johnson's first recorded
literary effort.
He painted on the
wall, "Boo to grown-ups."
Stanley met Charlotte
at Oxford University.
Charlotte had Boris at
22 and four children by 29,
when the couple moved to a
cottage on the Exmoor farm.
They were both very young.
Charlotte looked very nice.
She looked like, uh,
she had a ponytail and
long hair and a short skirt.
Andand, and she
had a wonderful smile.
And she was very welcoming.
He sometimes listened to the
radio, and there were the Beatles,
they all could sing
the Beatles songs.
Stanley, especially, he could,
he could really sing all the songs.
He liked it, yeah.
I think Charlotte was
more into the reggae.
Boris, when I was
there, he was ill,
and it was an ear problem.
It was quite severe.
Well, he was deaf until
about the age of eight.
He had quite a problem
hearing what people were saying.
He was shy.
An anxious child.
My theory is this, in order
to compensate for that,
I-I didn't really
..I-I couldn't hear.
I couldn't hear, so I had
to, I had to feign, you know,
a certain ignorance
of everything.
He was silent. He
didn't talk much.
He was not in a great mood.
He was not veryhe was
thinking, he was in himself.
He was walking
alone through the river.
Sometimes we went
for a walk, the two of us.
He took me in as
part of the family.
We went up this
beautiful hilly countryside.
On top of the hill, we
sat down for a rest,
and we were looking
around us, and he said,
this, Joke, look at this,
Joke, this looks like a huge,
big turtle.
Don't you see it?
He was making me
understand, you see,
this is a turtle, these patches.
I said look, outwardly,
he's like Stanley,
but, uh, inside in the character,
I think, he had this lovely,
sensitive, artistic,
soft feeling in him.
This was Charlotte's side.
But I think Charlotte
certainly did have very,
very high moral standards.
Real understanding of
how you should treat people.
Stanley is the showman.
Tremendous sort of
go-getting qualities.
Dashing about
all over the place.
Extreme competitiveness,
the sense that the
rules don't apply to him.
Including the rules of
monogamous marriage.
He wasn't there many
times. He was, he was.
..he was working and, and
working and staying in London a lot.
Rows between Boris's
parents begin to grow,
with Charlotte accusing Stanley of
serial adultery whilst away at work.
Well, Stanley kept on
getting different jobs,
sort of bouncing from
one thing to another.
Sometimes fell out with
people or didn't stay very long.
On the whole, children
don't like moving.
His parents moved 32 times.
The fate of the Johnsons
and that of Britain
changes dramatically
in January 1973
with the UK's decision to
join the European Community.
..whose scope will gradually
extend until it covers virtually
the whole field of
collective human endeavour.
Stanley always dreamt
of being a Tory MP.
And now he tries
the next best thing,
moving his family to
Brussels, as he sets his sights
on becoming a Conservative
member of the European Parliament.
This is Stanley. Yes, yes.
No, that's Boris.
Sorry, no, it's
Boris. It's Boris, yes.
And there's a rather sad
looking Charlotte, isn't there? Yes.
Coping.
We were there in
Brussels before they were,
Charlotte and family
arrived in 1973.
And we saw them quite often,
they came to us for a meal.
We went to them for a meal.
The children were
very young. Um,
and, of course,
she was worn out.
She looked absolutely
exhausted. This poor woman.
PRODUCER: Did Was
Stanley overwhelmed as well?
Well, I mean,
Stanley was Stanley.
I mean, he was rushing
from A to B to C to D,
all in one gulp.
Overrevving a lot of the time.
And nothing was enough.
He had to go somewhere
else and then somewhere else.
Fatal to anybody else
who is close to him.
And I think Charlotte, you know,
she took it on the
chin all the time.
Or so, what else was
she expected to do?
I mean, she was
quite unhappy in
..and in fact, she made
an announcement,
and it was an
announcement, and she said,
"I'm going back to London
to go into the Maudsley,
"because I can't stop
washing my hands."
She'd been scrubbing
her hands, they were raw.
Obsessive compulsive behaviour.
In 1974 Charlotte
becomes an inpatient
at the Maudsley Psychiatric
Hospital in South London.
We actually went and visited
Charlotte in the Maudsley.
And we were very shocked
at how ill she had been and,
up to a point, still was.
She was shaking.
But I think she was
very relieved to see Sally.
Well, obviously I felt
really deeply sorry for her.
It was quite obvious
her life was a huge strain.
I said to her,
"Anybody who's married
to Stanley is bound to be ill."
I mean, was he, am I
right in remembering
that on at least
one occasion he,
he actually struck her?
Well, that's what
she told me, love.
But, I-I can't say
any more about that.
Charlotte had a profound
influence on Boris.
She went into the
Maudsley hospital,
which occurred when he
was only about ten years old.
And that was the separation
from his beloved mother.
And her suffering was
really agony, I think,
and he was the oldest
of the four children.
And then his
parents got divorced.
His childhood was, in many
ways, extremely painful.
Charlotte spends eight
months in the Maudsley,
and on her return to Brussels,
Stanley sends Boris away
to public school in England.
I would call myself a
very traditional father,
really traditional,
in the sense that I had
almost nothing to do
with my children's upbringing.
I said, "Look, why do we have
top class schools in this country?"
Boys and men who went to
boarding school or public schools,
they were meant to fight,
to fight each other and
fight themselves into
You just accept
that there are people
who know things you don't know.
And so, as far as I was concerned,
this is a deliberate decision.
I really believe that the school
is gonna give them things I
can't necessarily give them.
Tonight's debate
is on the motion that
Englishmen are
funnier than Americans.
Distinguished members
of the Oxford Union,
Englishmen are not funny.
Not funny!
Jasper Carrot to speak
in favour of the motion.
It's fast everything.
It's the American way, and
you've got to have everything now,
give it me now, I've
got to have it now!
I call upon Steve Allen.
At Oxford, Boris
becomes president of
the Oxford Union
Debating Society,
building up a contact
list of guest speakers,
encompassing world
leaders, celebrities,
and elites in every profession.
The president's
now leaving the hall
with his main guests,
leaving his deputy,
the librarian,
to preside over
continuing debate
amongst the ordinary
members of the society.
Armed with connections,
Boris gets a job at The
Times as a trainee reporter.
I met him in 1987.
He was leaving Oxford.
He's really a dramatist.
He wanted to tell a story.
He had absolutely no sympathy
with the fact checking mentality,
he just can't bear
that pious idea
that if only you get
all the facts right,
then what you're
saying is right.
He thinks you
start with the story.
Who would like
to see Boris's lap?
I reread a lot of his articles.
He wrote a lot of
pieces about cars.
I'm the worst
driver he's ever met.
You've got to aim for the
apex. Aim for the apex.
I mean, they don't tell you
anything much about the qualities
of the engine or
anything like that,
but they do they do somehow
give you a feeling of what it's like
driving one of these cars.
Boris is sacked by The
Times for fabricating a quote.
But he gets a job at The Telegraph
as their Brussels correspondent,
where he writes a series
of anti-European articles,
often ridiculing the institution
that his father cherishes.
Triviality, butter
mountains, wine lakes,
beef mountains,
all these sort of, uh,
petty details, which
isn't what it's all about.
And I'm actually talking
about a Europe of enterprise,
initiative, a
spirit of incentive.
The former Brussels
correspondent of the Daily Telegraph,
and now its deputy
editor, Boris Johnson,
is with me now. Well,
Mr Johnson, first of all,
from your time in
Brussels, does it seem
Two decades of Conservative
government are over.
Boris.
Tony Blair has won a landslide.
Boris is becoming
more widely known
for his weekly political
columns in the Telegraph.
He now has four children
with his second wife,
Marina Wheeler,
when he's chosen to become the
new editor of the political magazine,
The Spectator,
where he meets deputy
editor Petronella Wyatt.
I lived this very
exotic sort of life.
The Queen Mother used
to come for dinner a lot.
Margaret Thatcher.
She became rather
sort of motherly
in a strange sort of way.
She sort of asked
me about boyfriends.
She kept saying,
"Take your time.
"Take your time."
And I was introduced
to the perfect boyfriend
who was sat next to me at dinner,
and this was David Cameron.
There wasn't
chemistry between us,
but he was a good dancer, David.
A very good dancer.
I wasn't easily
impressed, I suppose.
Morning everyone, now,
the, 170th anniversary issue.
What other countries are
doing about the millennium,
particularly United States,
the answer is that they're
not doing anything at all.
And they think
we're barking mad.
I was very annoyed
when Boris became editor.
It was a small office,
so I was dreading it.
And I didn't really like him,
and I didn't like his
sort of bumbling act.
I said to Boris, "Can I write
some pieces for The Spectator?"
And he said, "Yes."
And it amused him to
make me foreign editor.
I was called foreign
editor, but I did no editing,
and I never went abroad.
But what I did do
was go to the, uh,
Thursday morning conference.
And those are the most
enjoyable editorial conferences
I have ever been to.
Everybody just sat there
drinking till five in the afternoon.
He started asking
me out to lunch.
Once you got past
the 1920s language,
you discover that he was
deeply interested in philosophy
and history and serious things.
And we both loved
ancient history.
He was fun.
He was fun, and he
was very intelligent.
Fingers on the buzzers.
In Greek mythology, what
was the name of the king of Elis
whose ox stalls housed 3,000?
Augeas. Augeas is right.
What single word refers in art
to a painting or sculpture
depicting the Virgin Mary,
holding the dead body of
Christ? Broadsheets, Johnson.
Pieta. Pieta is right. Which
large urban complex
The interesting thing was
that he was deeply shy.
Johnson.
Soweto.
Soweto is right. Which Hebrew
Look, you know what
they say about actors,
the shyest people become actors.
Boris, you've buzzed in already.
And Boris was an actor.
The Boris creation
was a creation.
It was a performance.
Sublimation.
Sublimation is right.
Sex and shopping. Is correct.
Diane Abbott. Did say that, yes.
I know it sounds odd, but
for somebody like Boris,
somebody so gregarious,
really didn't have many friends.
And I said, "You're
a loner, aren't you?"
And he said, "Yeah, yes, I am."
I certainly wasn't looking
or hoping for anything.
He had this sort
of vulnerability
that sort of drew you in.
There was almost this
sort of innocence to him.
He adored his mother, but
..he looks like his father.
But I think he's more
complicated than that.
Now, I've got to say that I had
a tough upbringing now, have I,
and that sort of thing? And
I lived in a hole in the road.
And when I was a
nipper, when I was
Oh, we had it tough
and ate coal for breakfast.
We're gonna go now to the
weekly Spectator conference,
which is, uh, in Boris Johnson's
office, the editor's office.
Tremendous. Um
The Spectator's political
correspondent is Peter Oborne,
who witnesses the birth
of a new phenomenon.
New Labour hated
talented politicians.
They had constructed
a method to be dull.
If you weren't boring in the
way you talked, you got fired.
And the reason actually
was they were terrified
of the media because
you'd make a gaffe,
and everybody would go bonkers.
Except Theresa May, who was
this week presented more especially
Oh, I was completely wrong then.
..by Russell No, you were right.
Boris, Boris, you
edit a magazine.
No, he said He was right.
What on earth are the
editorial meetings like?
"Oh, I, I, yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's a good idea, put it on paper."
Boris, not deliberately,
but happenstance,
it was just the right moment,
he realised that you could
make a complete arse of yourself
and actually it
would do you good.
Paul, Paul No, Paul.
Big Brother is absolutely
the right answer.
And, uh, the, uh
Is it? Did anybody say that?
Well, someone said
something. I-I, listen, never mind.
Come on, team. We've
got to get a grip here.
They're laughing,
Boris, they're laughing.
And they're agreeing,
they're clapping!
With TV now giving Boris a
recognisable and relatable brand,
he pursues a long held
dream to make it to Parliament.
And in the 2001
general election,
he stands for the safe
Conservative seat of Henley.
Let's go to Henley.
Janet Matthews, 9,367.
Alexander Boris Johnson, 20,466.
So, Boris Johnson
takes that seat.
On the same night, David
Cameron is also elected.
But overall, it's a poor
night for the Tories.
Well, I think we've
got to stop and think
and reflect on our policies
and reflect on our approach.
And it is the darkest hour
that comes before dawn.
So bethink thee of that.
And it's almost
breakfast time now.
Good morning.
Let's go back home
and prepare for breakfast.
Tony? He is a genuine character.
He'd promised the then
owner of the Telegraph
that he'd never become an MP.
And he promised Henley
that if he became an MP,
he'd give up the Spectator.
And he did neither.
There have been 15 years
where language was controlled,
ideas were banned,
everything was conformist.
And along comes this person
who makes endless gaffes.
Liverpudlians have
been accused by
the political magazine,
The Spectator,
of wallowing in their victim
status over the murder
of the British
hostage Ken Bigley.
And Paul Bigley,
who is, uh, Paul
Yes, what can we say? You're
a self-centred pompous twit.
I don't really think I
can, I can say anything,
uh, to you, Paul, that will,
alter your opinion of me.
While Boris Johnson
gets the prize as Liverpool's
least favourite politician,
but where he may get
the prize today is for
the most number of
apologies for a politician.
He really hasn't
stopped saying he's sorry.
But not for
absolutely everything.
I don't want to contradict
you, but anyway.
Which bit aren't you sorry for?
Well, I'm, I No, I
don't want to repeat,
I'm not, I don't apologise
for the entire gist of the,
of the editorial.
That's all I wanted to say.
Sorry, I didn't
want to interrupt.
The headlines keep coming.
And when Boris's affair with
Petronella breaks in the tabloids,
he's sacked as Shadow Arts Minister
by party leader Michael Howard.
Boris, are you going to save
your marriage, do you think?
I'm going to do
whatever I can to save
Oh, God, they've
locked me out. Well, uh
Wife Marina throws him
out of the family home
and changes the locks.
Boris is distraught and
pleads for forgiveness.
And after seven days,
she takes him back.
The human condition. We're all
brought down by our own foibles
and failures, aren't
we, Boris? And, uh
LAUGHTER
Boris got away with it.
Yeah, I-I was
blamed for everything.
Everything.
He ended the idea that
indiscretions mattered politically.
If anything, it made
you more popular,
more authentic.
And so he created
a new kind of politics.
The first introduction I had to
Boris before I actually knew him,
I was asked to go and take notes
at a meeting at
Michael Howard's office.
Two new MPs sat
around the table,
George Osborne
and David Cameron.
And the whole discussion
was about the future
of the Conservative Party.
How do we stop the members
having a vote and deciding
who will be leader of
the Conservative Party?
And Boris's name
came up a few times,
and I realised
..that the subtext of
the conversation was,
and that would also
stop Boris Johnson.
REPORTER: And he comes in
through the gates of Downing Street,
look, those are the
ordinary people of Britain.
"Tony, Tony," they're saying,
some are grabbing at him.
The passion in their
faces. He's there now.
The New Labour revolution had
been such a shock to the Tories,
awful election
defeats since '97.
We're still not going anywhere.
And if we're gonna get back
into power, we need to change.
Boring old men at the
top who haven't listened
to women's problems, which
is why they haven't got elected.
I've heard that you're an
avid fan of Little Britain.
I'm more of a Fast Show man.
I think the Fast Show
delivers better characters.
Cameron had started
to sort of make waves,
referred to himself
as the heir to Blair.
What got me initially was the
fact that you liked the Smiths.
Right, well, there we are.
We're making a good start.
They're my best band. Radiohead?
The thing about the Smiths albums
is that they then released so many
I got a call from David saying that
he wanted to run for the leadership.
With the Conservative
members, you know,
isn't he the charming young
man that everybody would like
to bring home to
introduce to their parents?
A squeaky clean, polished
Tory image and Boris,
you know, was the other
end of that spectrum.
Yeah. This is,
uh, Boris Johnson.
Breaker one nine to rubber
duck. Do you need me,
do you need me to shout?
Yeah, OK.
Boris was very competitive.
I mean, extraordinarily
competitive.
Competitive with me,
which was ludicrous.
His father had been
very competitive.
He'd been brought
up to be competitive.
If you came home from
school and told Stanley
that you'd come second in Latin,
he'd say, why didn't you come top?
In 2005, Stanley
runs for Parliament
as the Tory candidate
for Teignbridge in Devon.
Well, this is a
wonderful opportunity
to vote for myself today,
and that's what I'm going to do.
He narrowly loses out
to the Liberal Democrats.
Many people I know voted for me
because they thought I was Boris.
And
I'm perfectly sure that
having not quite achieved this
particular result,
other challenges will
present themselves.
And with Paul Merton tonight
is the father of Boris Johnson.
Stanley follows Boris
onto the media circuit,
and now all his political
ambitions are funnelled
through his eldest son.
In a Darwinian way,
there's no point in,
you know, any of us
going into this business
unless we want to
get as far as we can.
Otherwise, we're no good
to man or beast. We've got to,
we've got to want to
compete. We've got to,
to do as well as we
can. Can I go now?
Boris, he had to
prove something,
particularly with his intellect
because he never thought
he was good looking.
If you said somebody of his
generation was very clever,
a sort of cloud would
sort of descend.
I now declare David Cameron
to be the duly elected leader
of the Conservative Party.
He and David Cameron
were never proper friends.
Is it true that you've
always felt yourself slightly
intellectually inferior?
Inferior? Inferior.
No. No.
To whom? To David Cameron.
No, well that's a new
one. No, no, I have
It's not true? This
goes back to the days,
of course, when he
got a first and you didn't.
Ah. Yes.
Does that still rankle a bit?
Well, you know, I think the
He was furious that David
Cameron got a first at Oxford
and Boris got a second.
This is playground stuff,
you know what I mean?
He resented David
Cameron because of that.
I used to say, "Honestly,
it doesn't matter,"
but it, it mattered to him.
July 2007,
I took a call from David Cameron's
director of communications.
He said that Dave really wanted
to see if I could persuade
Boris to run for mayor.
PRODUCER: Why did
David Cameron think that Boris
was the right candidate?
I'll tell you exactly why I
think David Cameron thought
Boris was the right candidate,
is cos he thought
he was gonna lose.
Cameron said to me, you know,
"We just want, you know,
we want a good fight.
"Um, we don't
expect you to win."
Thank you, thank
you, that's all right.
That's great, thank you.
I didn't do a textiles degree
for nothing. Oh, superb.
Oh, dear. There I
am. Ah, no grey hair.
"So, if you think
I've got what it takes,
"go to, you know,
register your support,
"BackBoris.com,"
looking into the camera.
"BackBoris.com."
If you believe that I can
do it, then back What is it?
BackBoris.com.
Sorry, I can't remember
what the hell it's called.
Register your
support on backing
What is it?
Back Boris. Back. I can't
remember what it's called.
What's it called,
"back Boris"?
I think it'd be fair to
say that brand Boris,
where we got him
at the beginning
"Back Boris", yeah,
that's it. "Back Boris."
..you know, he probably
wasn't gonna win.
So let's just start
the whole thing again.
Just do it from the
Yeah. Da capo al fine.
We filmed on Primrose
Hill for the, the very first,
for his launch video.
And he arrived
and quite strangely
couldn't tell our camera crew
why he wanted to
be Mayor of London.
OK. Let's just give it a whirl.
I want to
Hang on, let's start
again, start again.
At the time, I'd been working
with David Cameron a lot,
and, you know, David
Cameron came prepared.
If you believe
What? If you believe
in baked beans
I don't want to, I don't want to, I
feel like a baked bean salesman.
Good stuff running for
mayor, Boris, well done.
It's good stuff,
you've got our vote.
I'll be down there for you.
Hi, Boris. How are you?
Nice to meet you, hello.
This is all the people
from our salon.
Every one of these
kids wants change.
Go on, Boris!
Thank you, thank
you. That's very kind.
It was just amazing to me how
unserious and unprepared he was.
I've got to be honest, I'm just a
bit worried about his presentation.
I look terrible. Yeah.
I really, I-I don't mean
to hurt your feelings,
but I just, honestly
It was the exact opposite
of anything I'd ever seen
from any politician
anywhere, ever.
And I don't know why
you are sniggering.
He's just an unbelievable
sniggerer at my vision.
I just thought it was
a joke, and I had a
I had a fun outing,
and I thought the thing
would be over in a month.
Literally.
My favourite word?
That word I think
is, uh, carminative.
What? Carminative.
Which you'll
define for us as?
Carminative
is-is-is a mystic spell
or incantation used
to calm flatulence.
LAUGHTER
It's a beautiful word.
It's carminative,
it's a beautiful word.
For getting elected in Henley,
he probably did about
an hour's campaigning,
because the people of Henley
would vote for him in a second.
In London, Boris
faces Ken Livingstone,
the first and only mayor the
capital city has ever known.
Cos when I became the
mayor, that was global news.
I mean, literally.
Ibut
PRODUCER: Who's
that on the back?
That's Tony Blair.
Ken was Mr London,
fundamental in
getting the Olympics.
And also, London
is a Labour city.
I did always think
this is gonna be
the most difficult
election of my life.
Very, very important.
Show I can tie my own tie.
It's like a test.
Boris was a very real threat.
I hadn't felt that about his
two predecessor elections.
Do I have to shout?
OK, all right.
Can you see me?
Wh-what, what do
you want me to say?
Our fear from the
very beginning was
Boris will say something
wrong and inappropriate.
Keep signing, keep
signing. Signing, signing.
I am signing, just, just
All I'm, uh
One problem for
the Boris campaign
is potential attacks
on his personal life.
To date, two affairs have
been reported in the press
with rumours of more.
Well, I don't know,
I can't really tell
..all I can tell you
about the phone is,
in the good old days of a
Nokia 210 or whatever it was,
it used to sit in his
suit jacket pocket,
and he'd look I-I mean,
basically it was his bird phone.
He'd pull it out of his top
pocket and look at it like that,
just for his eyes only.
Which of course had some of us
wondering what was on that phone?
Would all of the candidates describe
themselves as men of morals?
I suspect that
everybody in this room,
uh, uh, is in some way a
person of dubious morals.
But
So the people that want to
know about your sex life, Boris
Interesting though
my private life may be,
I think people are even more interested, Mayor
Livingston, in your duplicity about fares.
You can call me
Ken after all this time.
Are you embarrassed
by being kicked out of
the Shadow Cabinet
for having an affair?
I don't believe He wasn't
sacked for having an affair.
He was sacked
for lying about it.
No. Well, hang
on. I don't want to
When you're debating
Boris Johnson, I mean,
it's almost like
it's not politics,
it's about having a
chat with a celebrity.
If you'd stop most people on the
street and ask them about Boris,
they wouldn't mention politics.
They'd have mentioned, you know
..these chatty programmes.
Come on, Boris!
CHEERS
HORNS HONK
That TV celebrity role
of his did create him.
People saw him, they
thought he's very funny,
"I'd like to go out and have
a pint in the pub with him."
His charm, his humour.
Thank you for getting
rid of congestion charge!
I think the British public, they
liked him because they thought
he was a bit of a
rogue and a charmer.
And another kiss.
Thank you. Lovely!
They liked him because
he was a character.
The British love characters.
Yeah, well done.
Yeah, well done, team!
Go and register to vote!
Go, go, go!
Go, oh, yee-ha, grandma!
Most people when politics
would come on the TV
or radio would turn it down.
Interestingly, any time, you
know, Boris was on there,
just an image,
people would turn it up.
Spending a few days just
walking around London with him,
even the people who wanted to hate
him were smiling when they saw him.
People felt closer to him
than any other kind of politician,
which is amazing.
Political gold dust.
Watch out, watch
out, watch out. Please.
THEY CLAMOUR
APPLAUSE
Good afternoon, conference. I
am proud to be your candidate
to be mayor of the
greatest city on earth.
But what gives me the greatest
pride is that we have provoked
such gibbering squeals from
the lair of King Newt and his allies
that I know they are scared
that we Conservatives
are launching a
fight back in London.
REPORTERS SHOU
Election night we weren't sure
if he was actually
convinced that he could do it.
Ken Livingstone
- 1,028,966 votes.
The party didn't
think he could do it.
Boris Johnson - 1,168,738 votes.
CHEERING
Ken was furious.
PRODUCER: Is
that meant to be you?
Red tie, better head of
hair than I've got now.
Salt and pepper.
And here we are, here's Boris.
It fell over and so we
haven't got the body part.
I've never known a
politician like Boris before.
He's not really a
politician. He's a celebrity.
That hair. I mean, that face,
but I don't know
how you're holding it.
Is he nearly here?
There he is, brilliant. CHEERING
Suddenly all the party
were there and Cameron,
Boris was the belle of the ball.
Well done, well
done. Oh, fantastic.
CHEERING
You know, I've known Boris
since I got elected in '92.
He's one of those
guys that's able
to make you laugh whilst
sticking the boot into you
at the same time. So,
sort of, uh, talented.
Got the whole of
London behind you now.
Do you think you could get my
chair up a bit? It seems to be kind of
If I was David Cameron, I
would have been concerned
about the unpredictability.
That was something I-I would
have probably been quite happy
to see move away.
Username.
What's my username? Johnson?
It's probably B Johnson.
B Johnson.
In him moving over to become
mayor, the gamble was that would be it,
Boris is now in London,
and it's interesting to London,
but it's not interesting
to anybody else.
That's it.
The difference was
he changed all of that.
What do you think? Well, I
think you've heard him today.
I just want to make
one final point.
I want to Sorry, I want
to make one final point,
which is relevant to this area.
PLANE ENGINE DRONES OVERHEAD
And there it is. You can hear
it. I will not support - in fact,
I will oppose a third runway.
Right, there is no reason
It was Boris that suddenly
became interesting to the public.
I know, I'm sorry, I'm
interrupting a very important
television interview with
the Leader of the Opposition.
The cameras couldn't
take their eyes off him.
I mean, it was almost the
perfect job for him in a way,
because it was a
showman's job, really.
Thank you very much,
everybody, for coming,
and happy St George's Day.
He was, all the time,
building a reputation.
Who invented ping
pong and custard?
The English, didn't they?
And Boris Johnson!
Cry, God, for England,
custard and St George.
Yay!
And if there's anything
where I go like too far
and I realise in the moment, I-I
might just stop you and just say,
"Look, actually, can we just"
I-I'm sure there won't be,
but just if there's
something that
OK.
Will Walden first began
working with Boris in City Hall,
where he was the mayor's
communications director
and official spokesman.
I spent a lot of time attempting
to get the best out of Boris.
It didn't always work.
Boris is a great wordsmith.
He's a great craftsman.
He's a great communicator.
Larger than life.
He's someone who dominates a
room mainly because he wants to.
Good morning,
Boris. Morning, Boris.
How does it feel
to be mayor, Boris?
2008, 2010 Boris was
the most senior elected
Conservative
politician in Britain.
Do you think you can deliver on
all your promises, Mayor Johnson?
Can you deliver?
Can you deliver on the promises?
Well, there you go. You've heard it
here live on the BBC News channel.
For me, fundamentally,
yes, I worked for the mayor,
but I also worked for the mayoralty.
It was my job to help sell London.
That wasn't always the
easiest thing to do with Boris
because he would like to
sell a bit of himself as well.
Here in City Hall
..MrWill Smith.
CHEERING
Hey, hey, hey!
Boris was the salesman
for London. It was his city.
Mr Mayor, who are
your biggest inspirations?
Oh, my God.
You mean apart from
Pericles? WILL LAUGHS
I-I've got it, or Aristotle.
Aristotle? That's funny,
Aristotle is one of mine.
Was he one of
yours? Yeah, Aristotle.
Aristotle's big. See, we
got a lot in common, man.
Yeah, absolutely.
It was all very deliberate. It was
all very part of the Boris shtick.
And I think his argument
was, well, you know,
"We're getting coverage.
I'm the Mayor of London,
"we're getting coverage."
REPORTERS: Get the mic out the
way! Get that microphone out the way!
Clearly this monstrously
confident ego.
OK, you ready? OK.
He's an extraordinarily
complicated character,
capable of immense
personal kindness.
I've been the beneficiary
of that at times.
But at the same time,
he's immensely flawed.
It was as if a pop star had
appeared in south-east London today -
autograph, photos and more.
Can you pretend to
like me for two seconds?
Yeah, of course I can.
More than two seconds.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Take my phone number if
you want, mate! You're all right.
I was amazed the
quantity of women
who would actually
throw themselves at him.
It was staggering. Just,
like, I don't get it, you know.
I know I'm gay and all,
but I just don't get what,
what's the attraction?
But, you know
My job as your mayor is
to get the funding we need
to put more police
out on the streets.
He doesn't want to
discuss his private life.
He doesn't think it's
anybody else's business.
And I remember
when I took the job
broaching the subject
of his colourful past.
And he just said to me,
"Never ask. Don't ever ask."
And I thought that was
completely unsustainable
cos what happened if a
journalist came with an accusation?
What do you do?
Never ask. It's ludicrous.
He's never gonna comment.
He said it's no-one's business.
"I'm not gonna comment."
Boris, do you want to
make any comments
about your comments earlier?
You have made the front
page of at least one paper.
A liaison with a woman
Yeah, well, dear Vanessa, I
don't go on about my private life.
I'm here to I don't want to
comment about that kind of thing.
I had no idea who he was.
I was 26, like Iyou
know, I was so young.
In 2011, Boris
meets Jennifer Arcuri,
a business student
and tech entrepreneur,
at a London conference
for venture capitalists.
He was there to speak to some of
the biggest money men in the city.
And I saw the way he, you know,
drew the sweatiest and the
oldest and the grumpiest of men,
you know, into this I
went, "Oh, that is a talent."
And I just walked right
up to the front and said,
"You have to speak at my event."
And he just
BORIS IMPRESSION: "Yes What?
Yes, of course, of course I can do that.
"Well, yes, all right, what
is this event, Jennifer?"
We wanted to create some sort of
event centred around technology.
To build our own businesses and
get within the same network of people.
What you're seeing now
in Tech City is very exciting.
We are in a phase where
He shows up and literally
everyone's jaw was on the floor.
They couldn't
believe Including mine!
I hope very much that I can do
everything to encourage Tech City
and everybody who
works in it to flourish.
The first text message,
"Boris calling Jennifer"
and signed his name "Boris."
So everyone saw the text,
proceeded to tell me
that I could not have him
in my phone as Boris Johnson.
They passed around a few names
and the first one I resonated
with was Alexander the Great.
So there he became
Alex the Great.
I'm Jennifer Arcuri,
founder of the InnoTech
I remember walking from
Camden, and he calls me,
"Jennifer, where are you?"
"Uh, somewhere in
Tavistock Square," you know?
"Stay there", "Stay
here on the street?"
I remember, "What?" "I'm
coming to you right now."
He's like, "I want to see you."
So I crossed the street
and went to the hotel,
and he was on the
TV. And I was like,
"This is so weird", you know,
doing some Olympic thing.
This is the completion of
the most wonderful velodrome.
Shall I tell you,
there's a secret,
it is rubbed with rhubarb. It is
lovingly rubbed with rhubarb.
The whole of the
exterior of this building
is lovingly rubbed with
rhubarb, and therefore
I order a pint,
see him coming
up into the entrance
and he's got his helmet on, and
his bike, and he's all out of breath.
Goes to the bar,
comes back, and he says,
"Jennifer, can I have £3.10
"or £3.50, please?"
And I said, "What?!
"I am a student and I
have to buy you a beer?!"
Like, the first drink
we meet and you
..you have me
buying you the beer!
And let's wish Team GB the
very, very best of luck in 2012.
And I just remember
thinking, he obviously likes me.
And I did like him.
We walked out of
there and he thought
he was going to follow
me back to Camden.
I-I just I was like,
"What? What, girl? No."
He went, "No, it's
all right. It's all right."
And I said, "No,
it's not all right.
"You're not coming back with
my three roommates in Camden."
He's like, "I don't
mind." I said, "But I do."
This is London's moment.
"I am a man. I'm a heterosexual
man, just like any other man."
The audacity, you
know, just comes to me,
"Kiss me, kiss
me. This is my city."
London.
I don't care what city this is.
I'm not kissing
you on the street.
He was like, "You're a very
interesting woman, Jennifer,
"the most conservative
woman I've ever met."
I didn't just walk off
and delete his number.
I actually liked
being around him.
Like, it was really
real. It was really real,
the energy, the genuine, real
You know, where you meet someone
and you're like, "Where have you been?"
People in City Hall from that
time knew who Jennifer was.
I think there was a kind of
grudging respect for Jennifer.
She was this quite dynamic
businesswoman who seemed
to have a friendly
relationship with the mayor,
but nobody really raised
any questions, obviously,
because we didn't
know what was going on.
Please go absolutely wild
and crazy for Mr Boris Johnson,
the Mayor of London.
Thank you very much everybody,
uh, for coming along today.
I hope you're having
a, er, productive, er,
a productive session. And Jennifer's
now going to instruct. We now..
We've now got to go over and
talk to California. Is that right?
Are you ready to hang
out? I'm ready to hang
I'm ready to hang
out. Yeah, I am. Yeah!
Look at that, Boris
is hanging out.
Incredible possibilities
of the technology.
We should do this the
whole time in City Hall.
It would save a huge amount
of, er, amount of time and effort.
Er, butbut
She appeared on mayoral trips.
She was typical of people
that were in his orbit.
You would say there was someone
in the building who wants to see him.
And we were like, "We're not
doing that today. That person can't."
And he had a back door to his
office and next thing you'd know,
that person would
be sitting in his office.
Thank you very much, Jennifer.
Thank you for coming and
justand hanging out with us.
My pleasure. You like
hanging out with us, right? I do.
I liked the attention.
I liked those times.
That was a Those
are fun memories.
I want to have a
successful Olympics.
I'm going to be judged very
much on whether we have
a successful Olympics.
It's going well, it's very,
very well organised.
What they do
Ge
Get me a ladder now.
There was a lot
at stake for him.
He really put his political
reputation on the line.
It was basically, this is my
event. It's going to be great.
I don't think underneath
he had any genuine sense
that it definitely was. It
It's very difficult, isn't it?
How How can we
bottle enthusiasm?
Wahey! That's it, that's
it. It's very It's very hard.
I mean, there they got it.
Harness that public spirit,
harness that
energy and kindness.
Boris had this unique ability
to basically make everyone feel
it was going to be all right.
We went to a Hyde
Park pre-event rally.
It's the Mayor of London. I'm just
going to give him the microphone.
CHEERING Boris.
Thank you. Thank you, Jonathan.
Boris wasn't supposed to speak,
he was just going to come on, wave,
and completely unscripted,
he just lifted the crowd.
The Geiger counter of Olympo-mania
is going to go zoink off the scale!
WILD CHEERING
Are we ready? Are we ready?
Yes, we are!
I remember 80,000 people
started chanting, "Boris, Boris!"
Can we Final question, are
you CROWD: Boris, Boris!
Can we put on
Can we put on the
greatest Olympic Games?
CHEERING
He had some glimpse
of what it would be like
..to be a Roman emperor
during the 2012 Olympics -
being cheered by vast
crowds in the amphitheatre.
He does like the idea ofof
being the Emperor Augustus,
pretending perhaps to some
republican virtues, but really
..wanting to be THE
great leader of Rome.
You did rack up more medals
than France, didn't you?
Yes! And more medals than Germany,
and more medals than Australia.
You routed the doubters, and
you scattered the gloomsters.
And for the first
time in living memory,
you caused tube train passengers to
break into spontaneous conversation.
The glory in which he basked
gave him an unprecedented
national platform that even
before that he hadn't had.
And I think it was very clear
October, November of 2012
that he was going to
run for Prime Minister.
Above all, you brought home the
truth that when we put our minds
to it, there is no limit to
what Britain can achieve.
One thing I noticed early on
..for being, uh, surrounded
with people all the time
..it always struck me how
terribly lonely this man was.
The more I saw him, the more he
wanted to see me more and more.
Wherever he was, you know,
he wanted me to come
out to see him in the country,
wanted me to take a
private car to see him.
The more I didn't see him,
the more he acted
out in order to see me.
Calling over and over
again, "I'm pining to see you,
where are you?" You know,
kind of man-child that
still requires that coddling.
And I could see this
kind of emotional fragility within
him. "Do you really like me?"
You know, he just, he'd
get very defensive if I said,
"I'll just go to an event with,
you know, David Cameron
"instead of coming to see you."
And he's like, "That's
bollocks! Don't you dare!"
And he would get really angry.
After the London Olympics,
the paths of Johnson and
Cameron become fully intertwined.
Cameron has been Prime
Minister for two years,
but clouds are forming.
His coalition government is
becoming unpopular due to austerity.
And the established
order of politics
is being threatened
by a new force.
Ukip.
Ukip, well, I've got
to I did meet
I did meet Nigel
Farage in a pub.
It was a social lunch.
Yeah, he thought I should
join the Conservative Party.
I thought the Conservative Party
was going hopelessly
in the wrong direction.
We have a lot of candidates who
are standing for us in this election.
Nigel Farage's
Independence Party
had spent 20 years campaigning
to leave the European Union.
These journeys go in stages.
As Gandhi brilliantly said,
first they ignore you,
then they laugh at you,
then they attack
you and then you win.
Well, we're getting more
mainstream by the day, aren't we?
Look, I was the devil.
You know, I was the devil.
I mean, er, you know, I
mean, Tory MPs were told,
"Don't meet him, never
be photographed with him."
You know, as if I'm some
sort of dangerous pied piper
that was going to lead them and
the country to total destruction.
The feeling was that all Ukip
voters were retired half colonels
living in Wiltshire having
kedgeree for breakfast.
And we had plenty
of those, it's true.
But actually the real appeal of
Ukip was with working-class Britain.
Saving the country from
so many coming into it.
Let's not delude
ourselves about this.
They wanted
immigration numbers cut.
The net migration figure is
now over three times your target.
We decided we
would use elections.
The insurgency is in
a whole series of
parliamentary by elections.
If you vote Ukip, you get Ukip.
You start to take votes
away from other people.
And there was this perception
that Ukip would destroy
the Conservative vote.
# Rule Britannia,
Britannia rule the waves
# Britons never, never,
never shall be slaves #
On the national stage
Cameron was, you know,
under pressure. In the meantime,
there's this character going
around on what looks like
a permanent campaign,
getting people to laugh
and smile and, er, like him.
I've now won this
three times, this GQ.
I am, I feel like Bjorn Borg.
A recent review on the
Wall Street Journal, quote,
Boris Johnson is by some margin
the most interesting
political figure in Britain today.
What a joy to have you here.
Thank you so much for joining us.
If you looked at David
Cameron and said in yourself,
when you looked in the mirror and
said, "I could be David Cameron."
These are, you know I
think like it's very important
for politics that
people should be,
people should feel that
the top job is coveted.
You know, we're all like wasps
in a jam jar trying to survive.
And compete for it, because
only by the competition
..will the country
be best served.
Thank you for
coming to this table.
CHEERING
Ukip win the 2014
European elections,
pushing the Conservatives
into third place.
I think it is a
political earthquake.
We've won a national
election and for David Cameron,
that debate, that split within
his party is going to continue.
Boris, lovely to have you here.
Thank you so much for coming on.
It's a joy. Let me try this
on for size. See how you like
the sound of this. Prime
Minister Boris Johnson. No.
How d'you like the sound of
that? You must like the sound of it!
You must want to be
Prime Minister, no?
Why would you
get into it if not to?
I think you are a
singularly popular politician,
and I think, am I
right in saying this?
CHEERING
It's a waste election,
it's a wasted
MUSIC DROWNS OUT SPEECH
One time when we
sat down, it was like,
"How do you handle the media?
"How do you deal with
this nonsense?" You know,
and he was, he laughed and
he was like, "Impeccably well."
Steady, go, whoa.
Brilliant Jeremy, keep going.
Boris, this is a bit like being the
back half of a pantomime horse.
Brilliant, watch out, take care.
People screaming
"There's Boris!"
Does this happen
to you all the time?
I just remember asking him,
"Do you actually want to be
Prime Minister? Is that you?"
I think he'd be a utterly
superb Prime Minister,
and he would, you know,
be the voice that roared.
And he takes a
moment. "Well, you know,
"Jennifer, I'm a very
competitive person."
It was like he didn't know how
to But it wasn't a resounding,
"Yes, of course I want
to be Prime Minister."
It struck me very different.
All his life he wanted
to be Prime Minister,
and I used to ask him why.
And I'm not sure he knew himself.
Boris was never really
good at talking about
serious things about himself.
I think he thought
that he couldn't show
the sort of cracks.
It goes back to childhood.
The best thing to do in
life is to come to terms
with yourself and just be yourself,
which I've sort of learned to do.
But then, I always felt loved.
My parents never divorced.
I was never abandoned.
Boris was trying to
compensate for a lack of love
or a feeling that he was wanted.
And therefore he
wanted the whole world
..toto love him,
to compensate.
After years of pressure building
and infighting over
Europe within his party,
David Cameron
prepares to announce
an in-out European
referendum to the British people.
It was a gamble
on Cameron's part.
And I just said to him,
this is the biggest thing you're
ever going to do in your life.
Good afternoon.
I actually said to
Cameron, by the way,
uh, I don't see why you need
to hold the referendum now,
you've got two years.
And his answer to
me was quite revealing.
He said, "No, I'm not prepared to
have Europe dominate my legacy."
And I said to
him, "But it will."
I know there will be many
passionate arguments
over the months ahead.
Those who want to leave Europe,
all they're offering is a
risk at a time of uncertainty.
A leap in the dark.
The choice is in your hands.
But my recommendation,
I believe that
Britain will be safer,
stronger, and better off
in a reformed European Union.
Thank you very much.
David Cameron
knew how vital it was
Boris came down on their side.
You know, I watched,
they worked like hell,
throwing everything at Boris.
Morning, Boris. How are you
doing? How are you doing?
Is the Prime Minister going to
persuade you to back Remain today?
Let's Let's see what
happens at, er, at the er
Boris can quite often leave you
with a sense that he is
going to be on your side.
Are you still making up
your mind, Mr Johnson?
He has this capacity to be able
to leave you certain that the
last thing you saw was right.
Has the Prime Minister done
enough to convince you, Boris?
It isn't always the case,
but for all politicians, that's
not a bad asset to have.
OK, thanks, mate.
Thanks, cheers. Morning.
So it's up three, it's 333,
the overall figure. 110.
As Cameron entices
Johnson towards Remain
with the offer of becoming
Defence Secretary,
Boris drafts two
Telegraph columns.
One arguing to stay in Europe,
one arguing to leave.
Everyone waits to find
out what he really thinks.
It was attributed partly
My name's Sonia Purnell, and
I was Boris Johnson's deputy
for the Daily Telegraph in
Brussels in the early 1990s.
I'm sorry, uh,
God, I promise you,
this has been very, very tense.
Um, I reversed ferret
in the middle because,
it suddenly seemed it was
going to be a yes. But it is a no.
Boris Johnson had been there
for years as a correspondent,
and had grown
up in the city, too.
One of the things that was
quite disturbing was every day
at four o'clock, which was
coming up to our deadline time,
or actually a little bit
past it, he did this thing,
which I eventually called
the four o'clock rant.
He would shout abuse
at this yucca plant
on his desk. And
he would, you know,
eff and blind at it
for five or ten minutes
at the top of his voice.
And at the end of it,
it would suddenly stop.
And then you would
hear him sit down
and type up this kind
of invective against
the European
community. And it was as,
as if he had to work
himself up into a frenzy,
because I believe then,
and I still believe now,
that, more or less,
the broad picture is he
supports the European project.
It's something that he had
to kind of work up this bile,
this fury, which
didn't really exist.
And I mean, those pieces he
wrote were unbelievably influential,
but they were
based onnothing.
Everything I wrote
from Brussels,
I was just chucking these
rocks over the garden wall.
Like, listen to this amazing crash
from the greenhouse next door.
Mr Johnson, will you be
voting in or out of Europe?
Everything I wrote were having
this amazing explosive effect on
the Tory Party. And,
and it really gave me this,
I suppose rather weird
sense of, of power.
Is Britain better off
in or out of Europe?
I was the only person with him
for that three-hour period
before he stepped outside.
People mistake
the idea that Boris,
because he'd written
very negative things about
the Union and its institutions over
the years, was definitely going out.
He was genuinely mixed up about
what side he was going to choose.
You know, he was still mayor
of a city of 300 languages
and diverse races.
And yet one of the central
arguments of Vote Leave
was about taking
control of immigration.
He had his father
supporting staying in.
He veered around
like a shopping trolley.
He was looking at both the columns.
He was arguing in his own head.
He was under enormous
pressure from Number Ten.
Cameron was texting
him, ringing him,
offering him, you know,
every job under the sun
to try and keep him on board.
Boris? I'd say to Boris
He's probably watching,
talk to him directly.
Well, I would say to
Boris we will be safer,
we'll be stronger, we'll
be better off inside the EU.
The pressure was relentless,
and clearly wasn't helping
with his clarity of thought.
A couple of times, he would say to
me, "I can't do this. What do you think?"
And I'd say, "I'm not
making this decision for you."
You know, "You know
what the arguments are."
I'd been coming in
and out to basically
try and keep the press
troops happy all afternoon,
with absolutely
nothing to say to them.
I was giving a top
load of nonsense spin.
I said to him,
this is untenable.
You're going to have
to say something.
There's 150 journalists
parked outside your house.
We cannot go on like
this. And he knew that.
And I think in a way he kind of
just didn't want to make a decision.
But even inside the house,
before he stepped out,
he didn't really quite confirm
when we were going through
it what he was going to say.
Here we go.
Hello, hello. Good
afternoon, everybody.
I thought I'd better come
out and say something
because I could see
that you were all
You were all in a great
In a great, er, mass here.
And I, I apologise for being
slow with coming down.
You want to ask my, my
views on Europe, don't you?
Well, let me tell you, let
me tell you where I've
where I've got to,
which is that I am, I'm
I've made up my mind.
And I want to stress,
because I can see that we all,
lots of people here,
we've got a huge crowd,
I want to stress this is not about
whether you love Europe or not.
I actually, I love Brussels.
I used to live in Brussels,
But there should be
no confusion between
the wonders of Europe
and holidays in Europe
and fantastic food
and friendships and
With a political project.
And it's my view that after
30 years of writing about this,
we have a chance
actually to do something.
And that's why, er, I've decided,
after a huge amount of heartache,
I don't think there's
anything else I can do.
I will be advocating,
er, Vote Leave,
because I want a better deal
for the people of this country.
To save them money
and to take back control.
Political calculation.
Look, the big battalions of
the argument are unquestionably
ranged against people like me.
We are portrayed as, you know,
crazy cracks and all the rest of it.
Boris Johnson joined the
Brexit crusade at five minutes
to midnight, but
he made a decision.
And I heard the news,
and I was delighted.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Out the door, ruffle the hair.
"Gosh, what are you all doing
here? What a terrible surprise.
"Oh, I'm supposed to be
speaking about this. Yeah.
"Um, you know, broadly speaking,
"I've thought long and hard
about it. I'm incredibly divided.
"Er, let's go for the Vote
Leave thingy. Let's do that.
"But you know, honestly,
it's of no consequence.
"Don't worry about
it. See you all later."
Knowing full well that it's
a massive consequence.
This is the moment
where I think ultimately
the direction of the
country changed forever.
And I think the direction of Boris
Johnson's career changed forever.