Boris Johnson would be driven “insane” at the prospect of George Cameron and George Osborne’s delighting in his failure to deliver Brexit, a Downing Street insider has claimed. A former aide to Boris Johnson is reported to have revealed to the author Anthony Seldon that during moments of panic over how to avoid extending Brexit during the Summer of 2019, Mr Johnson’s advisor would remind him of the delights his arch-political rivals would take in watching him fail. Seldon’s explosive book Johnson at 10: The Inside Story, which is being serialised in The Times, claims that Boris vowed: “I’ll show those f***ers.”
An extract from the book reads: “Whenever Boris was panicking, [Dominic Cumming] and communications director Lee Cain would tell him: ‘There is no other way through. You’ll be the shortest-serving prime minister in history unless you do this.'”
An insider also told Mr Seldon: “The prospect of those two [Cameron and Osborne] laughing at him would drive him insane. He’d move from, ‘Oh my God, we’ve got to ease up,’ to, ‘I’ll show those f***ers’.”
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Mr Seldon also states that Mr Johnson’s use of foul languages, such as dismissing critics in his party with expletive heavy rants, contributed to a “macho culture in No. 10 that some, especially women, found hostile.”
An aide told the author: “He would use the c-word a lot around Dom and Lee. It’s what he thought working-class people did. Lee is definitely working class and even though Dom wasn’t, he came from the northeast, which was working class enough for Boris.”
Mr Seldon also describes how angry outbursts and the use of foul language became more common in Downing Street.
He alleges that during a garden party, Dominic Cummings angrily questioned a Conservative MP who dared to challenge the threats to deselect MPs who voted against the government, saying: “What the f*** do you think I’m here for?”
Boris Johnson’s language was just as bad, writes Seldon who claimed the Prime Minister would dismiss critics in the Conservative party using the c-word.
Seldon added that the editor of The Sunday Times was also subjected to derogatory comments.
Mr Johnson called her a “c***” after her paper published a story he didn’t like, he writes.
He reports that when she learned of the insult, he called her in to apologise in person.
