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Louise Thomas
Editor
Boris Johnson is accused of being “two-faced” and “untruthful” in his controversial memoir in an outspoken intervention by his Tory nemesis Amber Rudd.
Former home secretary Ms Rudd, known for her provocative “not safe in taxis” jibe at the former prime minister in a TV clash, says his autobiography is more akin to the Beano comic than a serious book.
In a withering new put down she calls him “Johnson the Janus” – a reference to the Roman god Janus who faced both ways and which has become a euphemism for “two-faced” or “deceitful”.
Mr Johnson’s book, Unleashed, is the product of his “split personality” and reads like “Billy Bunter let loose in Westminster”, writes Ms Rudd in an article for The Independent.
The book shows he has “no integrity” and only ever does “what suits him best”, she claims.
Her broadside comes after several aspects of Mr Johnson’s account of his leadership in the book were questioned.
Royal sources have denied his claim he had a “manly chat” with Prince Harry, urging him to stay in the UK, at the request of Buckingham Palace.
And his statement that he regrets apologising as prime minister for the Partygate scandal in No 10 during the pandemic has caused anger among relatives of Covid victims.
Ms Rudd sparked uproar in a TV debate before the EU referendum in 2016 when she told Mr Johnson he was “the life and soul of the party… but he’s not the man you want driving you home at the end of the evening”.
In a review of his book, she says: “Having once said that Boris was the life and soul of the party, but not safe in taxis, I have to say that having read his memoir he is not safe behind a keyboard either. That is, if you are looking for truth, integrity, seriousness and profundity in a politician, let alone a prime minister.
“Unleashed is Billy Bunter let loose in Westminster with its endless whooses and biffs and sockeroos.
Anyone who buys Mr Johnson’s book expecting the work of a “serious writer or chronicler of the Covid years, an eyewitness to some of the most challenging and troubled times in our island’s history”, will be disappointed, Ms Rudd argues.
She adds: “No, he’s more Beano or Dandy than Gladstone or even Rory Stewart.”
The book is “farcical rather than factual”, she says.
“This is a book of two voices – the caricature of bombastic Boris, and the calm, quiet and calculating Boris. Some would say this perfectly reflects the two-faced nature of Boris Johnson the Janus – a classical allusion he will understand better than most, even if he doesn’t appreciate it. But then Boris was always a split personality.”
She points out how famously after the EU referendum, it emerged that before he put himself at the head of the Brexit campaign Mr Johnson wrote two essays, one which argued for Britain leaving the EU and the other remaining.
She says: “He was split, pulled in opposite directions, but not for the reasons you might expect. He was agonising over what would best serve him. And was always thus.”
