PM’s ‘history is catching up with him’ says Welsh First Minister

The Welsh First Minister, Mark Drakeford, has said that Boris Johnson’s “history is catching up with him”, highlighting that that Johnson has twice been sacked from previous jobs for lying. 

Citing a Sunday Times editorial on the eve of the December 2019 election that spelled out Johnson’s flaws, Drakeford said Johnson had an “on-off relationship with the truth” and often preferred “bluster to grasp of detail”.

In 2004, Mr Johnson was sacked from then-Conservative leader Michael Howard’s front bench for lying about an extramarital affair. While working as a journalist in the late 1980s, Johnson was also sacked by The Times for inventing a quote. 

Drakeford also told a press conference in Cardiff that the easing of Covid restrictions in England is designed to distract attention from “partygate”: “Everything that goes on in Whitehall and Westminster at the moment for the UK government is seen exclusively through the lens of: how does this make a difference to the efforts that are being made to shore up the position of the prime minister?”.