Boris Johnson’s senior adviser Dominic Cummings has found himself in the news today after a video clip emerged of him suggesting most Conservative MPs ‘do not care’ about ‘poorer people’ or the NHS. Now in No. 10, Cummings appears to be on a mission to change that – with a focus on applying the Johnson ethos of boosterism to healthcare.
But what of Johnson’s old comments? A search of Cambridge’s student newspaper archive reveals that BoJo too has made some comments which could now be deemed off-message.
In a 2000 interview with Varsity, the then editor of The Spectator discussed his decision to stand as the Conservative candidate for Henley. He told the student reporter that he would be a gaffe-prone politician: ‘I don’t know whether I’ll be any good, I think it’s quite likely I won’t be. My problem will be I will make gaffes, people will try to trip me up and I will always fall into it.’
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