John Major attacks Boris Johnson (again)

Shock! Horror! Sir John Major has attacked Boris Johnson! In a breathlessly reported appearance on the Today programme, the former Tory PM lambasted his successor for his ‘shameful’ handling of the Owen Paterson row, denouncing Johnson’s behaviour as ‘politically corrupt’ and ‘damaging at home and to our reputation overseas.’ Pretty strong stuff.

Or it would be, perhaps, if Major hadn’t made a number of similar such comments before. In Johnson’s two years in office, his predecessor has launched at least half a dozen attacks on him over Brexit, the Supreme Court prorogation, the Internal Markets Bill, foreign aid and the Afghanistan withdrawal. Among accusations levied by Major include Johnson whipping up ‘fear and anger’ for electoral purposes in September 2019, that he was ‘shaming the nation’ by his Northern Ireland policy in September 2020 and that in July the government bore ‘the stamp of Little England, not Great Britain’ after it reduced the international aid budget.