Six times Boris Johnson has been economical with the truth... at best
He’s the front runner to win the Tory leadership and step into 10 Downing Street next month.
But Boris Johnson doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to being open and honest.
The former journalist has been sacked from a number of roles for both political, and otherwise, for being economical with the truth.
Here are some of his biggest porkies.
He claimed the UK sends £350m a week to the European Union
Now subject of a landmark private prosecution, Boris repeatedly claimed Britain sends £350m a week to the EU during the Brexit campaign.
If found guilty of misconduct in a public office he faces more than six months in prison.
The claim was refuted by the UK Statistics Authority - along with a number of independent fact checkers. However, the myth has stuck with some people still believing the government sends hundreds of millions into EU coffers on a weekly basis.
He got fired for ‘making up quotes’ as a journalist
Boris began his media career long before his spells as a guest on Have I Got News for You.
However, they were similarly shambolic.
His first frontpage story was a story about the discovery of Edward II’s Rose Palace, who famously had a same-sex lover.
Speaking to the Independent in 2002 he claimed the tale was his “biggest cock-up”.
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He said: “The trouble was that somewhere in my copy I managed to attribute to Colin [Lucas - Boris’ godfather] the view that Edward II and Piers Gaveston would have been cavorting together in the Rose Palace.
“Unfortunately, some linkside don at a provincial university spotted that by the time the Rose Palace was built, Piers Gaveston would long have been murdered. It was very nasty.”
He followed up his cock-up with another story: “I made matters worse,” he wrote. “I wrote a further story saying that the mystery had deepened about the date of the castle.”
He created EU myths
After his short spell at the Times he moved to Brussels as the Telegraph’s man on the ground from 1989 to 1994.
Here he proceeded to write a series of stories including “Threat to British pink sausages” and “cheese row takes the biscuit”.
Chris Patten later described Boris as "one of the greatest exponents of fake journalism".
He lied about an affair
In 2004 it was reported Johnson had been having an affair with Spectator columnist Petronella Wyatt which resulted in two terminated pregnancies.
At first he called the claims “piffle” but once proven he was asked to resign by then Tory leader Michael Howard.
Johnson refused and was sacked as vice-chairman of the Tory party and shadow arts minister for his public lies.
Obama doesn’t like Britain - apparently
Johnson claimed Barack Obama removed a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval office because he was “part-Kenyan”.
His actual phrasing was an “ancestral dislike” for the UK.
Churchill’s grandson, and Johnson’s fellow Tory MP, Nicholas Soames said the claims were “appalling”.
Bending the truth about buses
During Boris’ 2007 London mayoral campaign he vowed to get rid of bendy buses in London.
He claimed: “They wipe out cyclists, there are many cyclists killed every year by them.”
From their introduction in 2001 to their abolition in 2011 not a single cyclist was killed by a bendy bus.
He said he got arrested
Johnson claims he and David Cameron were arrested and spent a night in the cells after the Bullingdon Club threw a flowerpot through a restaurant window.
However, both he and Cameron escaped before police arrived - according to the Financial Times.
However, depending on the outcome of the private prosecution he may experience what it’s like behind bars soon enough.