Boris Johnson's former boss Max Hastings says he has 'no scruples, conscience or principles'

Boris Johnson’s former boss has issued a scathing slapdown of the former Foreign Secretary, dubbing him a man without “conscience, principle or scruple”.

Writing in The Times, former Daily Telegraph editor-in-chief Max Hastings said: “It is a common mistake to suppose Johnson a nice man…He is a man of remarkable gifts, flawed by an absence of conscience, principle or scruple.”

Mr Hastings’ comments come as speculation continued to circulate over Mr Johnson’s next move following his shock resignation from the Cabinet on Monday.

Jacob Rees-Mogg is reported to have said that Mr Johnson would make a “brilliant” Prime Minister.

But Mr Hastings disagreed in a piece that echoes previous comments published in 2012, in which he described the former Mayor of London as a “gold-medal egomaniac”.

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Writing in the Guardian at the time, Mr Hastings said: “If the day ever comes that Boris Johnson becomes tenant of Downing Street, I shall be among those packing my bags for a new life in Buenos Aires or suchlike, because it means that Britain has abandoned its last pretensions to be a serious country.”

And in his latest piece for The Times, he wrote; “It was true that I employed Boris through years during which he showed himself a dazzingly entertaining journalist.

“But the joke went tragically wrong when Theresa May put him in the Cabinet.”