John Bercow did not hold back in his assessment on Boris Johnson’s premiership on Friday, dubbing the Tory leader “the worst” prime minister of his lifetime.
The former speaker of the house – who defected from the Conservatives to Labour this year – has been outspoken about how Brexit is a mistake and defended Angela Rayner’s “scum” comments since leaving his impartial post.
Now, he’s taken aim at the prime minister himself.
Addressing the ongoing furore surrounding Johnson’s flat refurbishment and the alleged Christmas party held in No.10 last year which breached Covid rules, Bercow did not hold back.
He said: “It inflicts reputational carnage on everyone involved in politics and on the House of Commons in particular.
“Now the person who is in charge of the ship is regarded as a serial dissembler, as an habitual liar, as someone who has made his career through ducking, and dodging, and diving, and dissembling, and deceiving people.
“That is why it is so incredibly serious and enormously damaging.
“I’m sorry to say it but I’ve known 12 prime ministers in my lifetime and by a country mile, Boris Johnson is the worst.
″His natural instinct is not to be open, not to be transparent, not to be accountable, but narcissistically to think, ’What suits me? How can extricate myself from this awkward situation? By what means can I arrogate blame somewhere else?′
″This is way below the standard the British public are entitled to expect.”
Bercow added: “If there isn’t a basic level of trust in the most senior minister in the government, it’s very difficult to operate a democratic policy at all.
“This guy stinks in the nostrils of decent people.”
Bercow also compared Johnson’s time in office to former Conservative prime minister John Major’s period in No.10 during the 90s.
Major’s premiership also became encompassed with “sleaze” allegations, much like Johnson and the Owen Paterson incident earlier this year, but according to Bercow, Major was still widely respected.
He said: “Yes, there was all sorts of wrongdoing during the latter stages of John Major’s premiership, but nobody ever thought that John Major was a person of anything other than unimpeachable integrity and straight-dealing.”
