Boris Johnson: The Irresistible Rise

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0:00:07 > 0:00:10Boris Johnson loves playing games.

0:00:10 > 0:00:15Using a warped wooden racquet, the London Mayor plays doubles with his siblings.

0:00:15 > 0:00:18Oh, yes! Oh, yes.

0:00:18 > 0:00:21One is an eco-businessman.

0:00:21 > 0:00:23One is a Tory MP.

0:00:23 > 0:00:26And the third is a mischievous journalist.

0:00:31 > 0:00:35Boris Johnson is a formidable and unorthodox competitor.

0:00:35 > 0:00:37Gotcha!

0:00:37 > 0:00:38CHEERING

0:00:38 > 0:00:40Yeah, I like it.

0:00:40 > 0:00:44His love of life has helped make him the country's most popular politician.

0:00:44 > 0:00:46Stand clear of the gates!

0:00:46 > 0:00:51At Private Eye we call him "Beano Boris" because he's a character from an old-fashioned cartoon strip.

0:00:51 > 0:00:53Everything's "cripes" and "blimey" and "chaps" and "phwoar".

0:00:53 > 0:00:58But those who know him claim there are at least two different Boris Johnsons.

0:00:59 > 0:01:02He's a sly fox disguised as a teddy bear.

0:01:02 > 0:01:08Behind the clown mask is said to lurk a deadly serious political operator -

0:01:08 > 0:01:12determined to get to the top, despite his colourful private life.

0:01:12 > 0:01:18He said have you got any advice, and I said, "Yes, lock up your willy."

0:01:18 > 0:01:21This film examines what really makes Boris tick,

0:01:21 > 0:01:26whether he is a man to trust and whether he could replace his fellow Etonian at Number 10.

0:01:26 > 0:01:31He knows that life is a competition and he always wants to be top.

0:01:31 > 0:01:35And Boris Johnson speaks more candidly in this film about his

0:01:35 > 0:01:38chances of grabbing the top job than he has ever done before.

0:01:38 > 0:01:41This programme was such a bad idea.

0:01:51 > 0:01:56This is Boris Johnson age five paddling his own canoe in the river

0:01:56 > 0:02:00that runs through the family farm in Somerset.

0:02:00 > 0:02:04There was no evidence then of the modern obsession with health and safety.

0:02:07 > 0:02:12The Eton and Oxford-educated Mayor of London has routinely broken the conventional

0:02:12 > 0:02:18rules of politics - and often found himself in deeply troubled waters.

0:02:18 > 0:02:23But though he had a pedigree English education - Boris Johnson has an

0:02:23 > 0:02:25exotic mongrel background.

0:02:29 > 0:02:33My brothers and sisters and me, we're like the honey you used to get

0:02:33 > 0:02:38that said "produce of more than one country", you know, we're all...

0:02:38 > 0:02:41We're from all over the place, so we've got, er,

0:02:41 > 0:02:46Turkish, German, French, Russian,

0:02:46 > 0:02:50international Jewry, you know, you know, the lot.

0:02:50 > 0:02:54The blond gene which is so strong in the prolific Johnson clan -

0:02:54 > 0:02:58is thought to come from a flaxen-haired slave girl whom one his ancestors married.

0:02:58 > 0:03:02Boris Johnson's great grandfather was a Turkish journalist and

0:03:02 > 0:03:06politician assassinated by a nationalist mob.

0:03:06 > 0:03:12His mother is a painter and his father an environmentalist who once worked for MI6.

0:03:12 > 0:03:17The Johnsons were living in New York when Boris was born.

0:03:17 > 0:03:20I wasn't actually present at the birth, though I'd been hanging

0:03:20 > 0:03:23in there for a long time. I popped out to get a pizza,

0:03:23 > 0:03:26as one does, and when I came back the baby had been born.

0:03:26 > 0:03:29Boris was a champion when he was born, because not only was

0:03:29 > 0:03:32he very big, looked as though he was ready for prep school,

0:03:32 > 0:03:35but he had thick yellow hair, it was most extraordinary.

0:03:35 > 0:03:39It was the time when the Beatles had just arrived in New York.

0:03:39 > 0:03:43So he got called the blond Beatle and all the mothers

0:03:43 > 0:03:48who were expecting babies, and to have them in that hospital, were brought in to see the blond Beatle.

0:03:49 > 0:03:55Boris was the first of numerous Johnson children who grew up in a super-competitive household.

0:03:55 > 0:03:59Boris Johnson says it was all sparked off by the birth of his sister Rachel.

0:04:01 > 0:04:06I shall never forget the expression of Boris's face when he arrived at the hospital,

0:04:06 > 0:04:09and saw me holding a new baby.

0:04:09 > 0:04:13The expression on his face was indescribable,

0:04:13 > 0:04:19but one of shock, disbelief, and fear.

0:04:19 > 0:04:26My life was one of blameless panda-like passivity until my younger sister arrived 18 months later.

0:04:26 > 0:04:32There I was, you know, everything, I had everything an 18-month-year-old

0:04:32 > 0:04:35could possibly desire and suddenly

0:04:35 > 0:04:39I found that I had this competition in the form of Rachel.

0:04:39 > 0:04:41And it was necessary to exert myself

0:04:41 > 0:04:44for food, for attention, for everything else.

0:04:44 > 0:04:52I learned to read before he did and this gave him a huge kick up the pants, because my grandmother,

0:04:52 > 0:04:55my paternal grandmother, used to... ask me to read out Times leaders

0:04:55 > 0:04:59when I was four, and would then turn to him and say, "She reads much better than you".

0:04:59 > 0:05:04So he's always been a competitor, right from the age of 14 months.

0:05:04 > 0:05:11He knows that life is a competition and he wants, always wants to be top.

0:05:16 > 0:05:22Boris seemed to have inherited his competitive gene and his blond hair from his father.

0:05:22 > 0:05:25But he also has some of his mother's more artistic side -

0:05:25 > 0:05:28he remains an accomplished painter.

0:05:28 > 0:05:32This is a self-portrait Boris Johnson did when he was just twelve.

0:05:32 > 0:05:39Whenever anyone asked him what he wanted to be, he would answer, world king. That is true.

0:05:39 > 0:05:42And that's what he thought, he thought that was a job

0:05:42 > 0:05:45that he could do and he would fulfil every criterion.

0:05:48 > 0:05:54The early life of Boris and his three siblings was one that was constantly on the move.

0:05:54 > 0:06:01As an environmental consultant, Stanley Johnson was regularly posted to new places in Europe and America,

0:06:01 > 0:06:04and the Johnsons moved house 30 times in 15 years.

0:06:04 > 0:06:08It made for what Rachel Johnson describes as a rackety childhood -

0:06:08 > 0:06:12made worse when their mother suffered a nervous breakdown and was

0:06:12 > 0:06:16away from her four children in hospital for eight months.

0:06:18 > 0:06:22When I was in hospital, they became very close to each other because we

0:06:22 > 0:06:26had a series of dotty nannies and housekeepers looking after them, and

0:06:26 > 0:06:30they grew very close to each other and very protective of each other.

0:06:30 > 0:06:33Boris was always very protective of the younger children.

0:06:36 > 0:06:38Boris was sent to Eton on a scholarship aged 13.

0:06:38 > 0:06:41SINGING

0:06:48 > 0:06:53The school has produced a third of Britain's prime ministers, including

0:06:53 > 0:06:57the current incumbent who was known at Eton as Cameron Minor.

0:06:57 > 0:06:59I do remember Dave.

0:06:59 > 0:07:03I'm fairly certain someone said to me once, "That's Cameron Mi",

0:07:03 > 0:07:07and there was this tiny chap, I dimly remember.

0:07:07 > 0:07:12Johnson's relationship with Cameron Minor would be a recurrent theme throughout his life.

0:07:12 > 0:07:17But at Eton it was Johnson who became the school star.

0:07:17 > 0:07:21Boris was clearly somebody out of the ordinary. I mean, he had, always had shaggy hair,

0:07:21 > 0:07:26he always had a rather plummy voice, he was always very sort of physical,

0:07:26 > 0:07:29a rugger player from an early stage,

0:07:29 > 0:07:33he always had great humour and a tremendous drive and seriousness,

0:07:33 > 0:07:39which sometimes is belied by the humour but was undoubtedly there.

0:07:39 > 0:07:44Do you think that Eton increased your sense of competitiveness?

0:07:44 > 0:07:50Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And that was a good thing. And I'd encourage that.

0:07:50 > 0:07:54Boris Johnson was such a tough competitor that he broke his nose

0:07:54 > 0:07:58four times on the playing fields of Eton. And he learned on a different

0:07:58 > 0:08:03school stage that he could break the conventional rules to his advantage.

0:08:03 > 0:08:06It was at Eton he discovered he could make people laugh.

0:08:06 > 0:08:10When he was in a French play, and he had to recite Moliere and

0:08:10 > 0:08:15he hadn't bothered to learn his lines and he hid behind a pillar reading them out,

0:08:15 > 0:08:18which was obviously much funnier than if he'd learned them

0:08:18 > 0:08:21perfectly and had stood on the stage and declaimed them.

0:08:21 > 0:08:26Do you think that you, you learned something for later life from acting

0:08:26 > 0:08:30in plays at Eton, that you could actually get more laughs by looking

0:08:30 > 0:08:33as if you don't know your lines than actually remembering them?

0:08:33 > 0:08:38Well, I certainly think that as a general tactic in life,

0:08:38 > 0:08:41if that's what you're driving at,

0:08:41 > 0:08:45it is, it is often useful to give the slight impression that you

0:08:45 > 0:08:49are deliberately pretending not to know what is going on,

0:08:49 > 0:08:53because the reality may be that you don't know what is going on but

0:08:53 > 0:08:56people won't be able to tell the difference.

0:08:56 > 0:09:01This is why he's dementing for other politicians, because they're all to

0:09:01 > 0:09:05an extent playing the part assigned to them by the party, you know,

0:09:05 > 0:09:08you have to be loyal, you have to be a good Tory.

0:09:08 > 0:09:13Boris has realised quite early on that he would go further if he broke all those rules,

0:09:13 > 0:09:16and people would love him even more,

0:09:16 > 0:09:18which is brilliant, genius piece of casting.

0:09:21 > 0:09:27While he was at Eton, Boris Johnson learned that his mother and father were breaking up

0:09:27 > 0:09:29and they were getting divorced.

0:09:29 > 0:09:33I often thought that his being world king

0:09:33 > 0:09:37was a wish to make himself unhurtable, invincible,

0:09:37 > 0:09:40somehow safe from the pains of life,

0:09:40 > 0:09:44the pains of your mother disappearing for eight months,

0:09:44 > 0:09:47the pains of your parents splitting up.

0:09:50 > 0:09:56It was at Eton that the would-be world king learned to play by his own rules.

0:09:56 > 0:09:59When he was 18, his house master wrote, "I think Boris honestly

0:09:59 > 0:10:03"believes it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception -

0:10:03 > 0:10:08"one who should be free of the network of obligation that binds everyone else."

0:10:10 > 0:10:14Johnson was elected a member of Eton's elite group which could wear its own fancy waistcoats

0:10:14 > 0:10:17and he was made Captain of the school.

0:10:17 > 0:10:20The fact that David Cameron didn't achieve either honour

0:10:20 > 0:10:23is something he's often privately reminded of by Johnson.

0:10:26 > 0:10:29I remember at the end of school you write message with photographs,

0:10:29 > 0:10:34so-called leavers, you send them to your friends, and I can actually remember what I wrote to him.

0:10:34 > 0:10:38He wasn't one of the great characters of Eton, he's one of the great characters of Eton history.

0:10:40 > 0:10:44When the 18-year-old Boris left Eton he posted this picture of

0:10:44 > 0:10:48himself in the leaving book and underneath it he wrote that his next

0:10:48 > 0:10:52ambition was "to achieve more notches on my phallocratic phallus",

0:10:52 > 0:10:56in other words his almighty male organ.

0:10:59 > 0:11:03Johnson had won an Oxford scholarship to study Classics.

0:11:03 > 0:11:08And he was determined to grab more of life's glittering prizes.

0:11:08 > 0:11:12..There being 167 votes

0:11:12 > 0:11:17in favour of the motion

0:11:17 > 0:11:20and 85 against,

0:11:20 > 0:11:24I declare the motion overwhelmingly carried

0:11:24 > 0:11:26and I close the house at 12:18 am.

0:11:28 > 0:11:33Johnson was elected President of the Oxford Union in his third year.

0:11:33 > 0:11:39The university's famed debating society was known as the playground of power.

0:11:39 > 0:11:43Many of its presidents would go on to become Prime Ministers.

0:11:43 > 0:11:47But Johnson's path to the top had not been smooth -

0:11:47 > 0:11:51he had developed what he called Tory tendencies.

0:11:51 > 0:11:55And when he first stood for the presidency his political opponents

0:11:55 > 0:11:59depicted him as a right wing Old Etonian toff who thought he was born to rule.

0:12:01 > 0:12:05As the polls closed he went to find the result.

0:12:07 > 0:12:10When I got there it was pretty clear that I wasn't going to win.

0:12:10 > 0:12:16And... I tell you, it was like all harrowing and shattering defeats,

0:12:16 > 0:12:21it was very good for me, it was, it was just what the doctor ordered.

0:12:21 > 0:12:27Boris would later develop his skill at putting on a brave face into an art form.

0:12:27 > 0:12:34He was visited in his college rooms by his mother, his two brothers

0:12:34 > 0:12:37and his sister Rachel who was now also at Oxford.

0:12:37 > 0:12:43He decided that the only way he could win the Union presidency was by broadening his political base.

0:12:43 > 0:12:49And the party making all the running was the SDP, the newly formed Centre-Left party.

0:12:49 > 0:12:53The SDP were in search of a candidate, and it would be,

0:12:53 > 0:12:55it would be fair to say that whilst I never

0:12:55 > 0:12:59identified myself as a supporter of the SDP,

0:12:59 > 0:13:04when asked if I would accept SDP support I did not demur.

0:13:04 > 0:13:08In other words - yeah, you know.

0:13:08 > 0:13:10Boris was a political chameleon.

0:13:10 > 0:13:13I think he was almost like a blank screen

0:13:13 > 0:13:16in which people could project their own political views.

0:13:16 > 0:13:20From his point of view he didn't need to be party political,

0:13:20 > 0:13:24if he wanted to be elected President of the Union he did not want to alienate anybody,

0:13:24 > 0:13:28so he allowed people to think whatever they wanted to think, that was pretty smart.

0:13:28 > 0:13:31He was exactly as you see him now, you know,

0:13:31 > 0:13:35charming, ruthless, er, single-minded, determined,

0:13:35 > 0:13:38he wanted to be President of the Union and he got there.

0:13:38 > 0:13:43Johnson had become President by appealing across party lines -

0:13:43 > 0:13:46a skill that would later serve him well.

0:13:46 > 0:13:52He'd also been elected to Oxford's most secretive elite group - the notorious Bullingdon Club.

0:13:52 > 0:13:56The all-male dining society's members included David Cameron,

0:13:56 > 0:14:00who has long wanted this photo to disappear.

0:14:00 > 0:14:05Members of the Buller feel bound by strict vows of omerta and normally refuse to speak

0:14:05 > 0:14:07publicly about the Club.

0:14:07 > 0:14:12Ah, yes. I congratulate you on defying the censors and bringing this

0:14:12 > 0:14:16appalling image once again before public view.

0:14:16 > 0:14:23It is a truly shameful vignette of almost superhuman undergraduate, er, arrogance

0:14:23 > 0:14:25and toffishness and twittishness,

0:14:25 > 0:14:29I suppose, but you know, it was great fun at the time.

0:14:29 > 0:14:31Er, or was it? Actually,

0:14:31 > 0:14:37the awful truth about all that business was you kind of felt very, er, posh...

0:14:37 > 0:14:42you felt it was wonderful to be going round swanking this up,

0:14:42 > 0:14:46but actually I remember the dinners being incredibly, you know,

0:14:46 > 0:14:48drunken and, you know...

0:14:48 > 0:14:51Ending up with smashing up restaurants and things?

0:14:51 > 0:14:54Well, yes, and the sort of abiding memory,

0:14:54 > 0:15:00the abiding feeling was of, of deep, deep, deep self-loathing and you know, what, what...

0:15:00 > 0:15:03I've talked to a number of people in the photograph and

0:15:03 > 0:15:07they say that when they see you these days you go up to them and say "Buller, Buller, Buller!"

0:15:07 > 0:15:09Right, do they?

0:15:09 > 0:15:12Yes, they do.

0:15:12 > 0:15:14It may be that I do, in a satirical way.

0:15:14 > 0:15:19In his public role as President of the Union Johnson had become one of

0:15:19 > 0:15:22the best known figures in the university.

0:15:22 > 0:15:24I was editor of the Daily Telegraph

0:15:24 > 0:15:27and I went as a guest to join a debate at the Oxford Union,

0:15:27 > 0:15:30and there was Boris in all his glory as President of the Union,

0:15:30 > 0:15:33his white tie and tails and all the rest of it.

0:15:33 > 0:15:35The house will proceed to a division...

0:15:35 > 0:15:39It was obvious all the girls were potty about him, nobody was looking at me for two minutes,

0:15:39 > 0:15:41they were all looking at Boris.

0:15:41 > 0:15:45..honourable members voting against the motion will sit on the benches on my left.

0:15:45 > 0:15:51Watching President Boris most closely was his girlfriend Allegra Mostyn-Owen.

0:15:51 > 0:15:55She was the student regarded as the great beauty of her day at Oxford.

0:15:55 > 0:15:57Allegra had modelled,

0:15:57 > 0:16:03she'd been on the cover of magazines, she always was immaculately turned out, and then

0:16:03 > 0:16:08standing next to her was this very dishevelled figure of Boris Johnson.

0:16:08 > 0:16:12The rumours were that he'd got her to wash and iron his shirts for him,

0:16:12 > 0:16:16they didn't appear to have been washed and ironed by anyone.

0:16:18 > 0:16:22The couple married soon after they both came down from Oxford.

0:16:22 > 0:16:28Boris Johnson had got an upper second in classics, not the first class degree he'd coveted,

0:16:28 > 0:16:32and he was disappointed to learn that David Cameron did get a first

0:16:32 > 0:16:35in Politics, Philosophy and Economics.

0:16:35 > 0:16:38Johnson had become a trainee reporter for the Times.

0:16:38 > 0:16:42But after he concocted a quote for an article he wrote about

0:16:42 > 0:16:47the Plantagenet King Edward II and his gay lover, The Times let him go.

0:16:47 > 0:16:50It was awful, I remember, I remember...

0:16:50 > 0:16:54I remember a deep, deep sense of shame and guilt and,

0:16:54 > 0:16:57and just not, do you know,

0:16:57 > 0:16:59just not knowing how to, to sort it out,

0:16:59 > 0:17:02and it was, it was a bit of a bummer, frankly.

0:17:04 > 0:17:07But not for the only time Johnson fell on his feet.

0:17:07 > 0:17:10He managed to move down river to another job at the Daily Telegraph.

0:17:10 > 0:17:14Its editor Max Hastings, whom Boris had cannily invited to speak

0:17:14 > 0:17:19at the Oxford Union, made him the paper's man in Brussels.

0:17:19 > 0:17:23We realised that Boris was very bright, we wanted somebody

0:17:23 > 0:17:27punchy, aggressive, original in Brussels to really get onto

0:17:27 > 0:17:30the whole EU issue, which was then really becoming

0:17:30 > 0:17:32very big stuff in British politics,

0:17:32 > 0:17:36and we just looked around for our brightest and available young man,

0:17:36 > 0:17:41and Boris looked like it, and he did not disappoint our hopes.

0:17:57 > 0:18:01The multi-lingual Johnson became a Eurosceptic reporter.

0:18:01 > 0:18:05He ridiculed the Brussels Commission with his gift for a phrase

0:18:05 > 0:18:07and his nose for a good story.

0:18:12 > 0:18:15From Euro-manure to one size fits all condoms,

0:18:15 > 0:18:17little escaped Johnson's eye.

0:18:21 > 0:18:24A number of the EU correspondents I've talked to

0:18:24 > 0:18:27said that you would take stories with a grain of truth

0:18:27 > 0:18:31and then hype it up and hype it up almost beyond recognition.

0:18:31 > 0:18:32Well, I mean, you know,

0:18:32 > 0:18:36I think there's a bit of pots and kettles going on there.

0:18:36 > 0:18:40Yes, there were one or two stories which perhaps in retrospect

0:18:40 > 0:18:44either because you'd slightly miscued the story yourself

0:18:44 > 0:18:47or because it got souped up in some way in its projection

0:18:47 > 0:18:50and, you know, the thing was a little bit overegged or whatever.

0:18:50 > 0:18:54I think I once said that the Berlaymont was going to be blown up,

0:18:54 > 0:18:56which didn't turn out to be quite true.

0:18:56 > 0:18:59The Berlaymont, the headquarters of the Brussels Commission,

0:18:59 > 0:19:02is still standing. But Johnson's growing Euroscepticism

0:19:02 > 0:19:07would help shape his own political future.

0:19:07 > 0:19:11Yet just as his Brussels reports were making his name,

0:19:11 > 0:19:15a story linked to his Oxford past came back to haunt him.

0:19:18 > 0:19:21It involved a fellow Bullingdon Club member, Darius Guppy,

0:19:21 > 0:19:23a long time friend of Johnson

0:19:23 > 0:19:26from their days at Eton and Oxford together.

0:19:26 > 0:19:29We did have a serious embarrassment with Boris

0:19:29 > 0:19:33when he was in Brussels when one fine morning, er, on my desk

0:19:33 > 0:19:37along with the post I find a tape and a note from a reader

0:19:37 > 0:19:40who was saying, "What are you as editor in chief

0:19:40 > 0:19:43"of the Daily Telegraph proposing to do

0:19:43 > 0:19:46"about one of your correspondents, Boris Johnson,

0:19:46 > 0:19:50"having this conversation with Darius Guppy, a convicted fraudster?"

0:19:50 > 0:19:54The tape was a recording of Guppy telephoning to ask Johnson

0:19:54 > 0:19:57to find the home address of an inquisitive journalist,

0:19:57 > 0:20:00whom Guppy wanted to scare off.

0:20:00 > 0:20:0220 years on, we filmed for the first time

0:20:02 > 0:20:05Johnson listening to extracts from the tape.

0:20:07 > 0:20:09'But I am telling you something, Boris,

0:20:09 > 0:20:13'this guy has got my blood up, all right? And there is nothing

0:20:13 > 0:20:16'which I won't do to get my revenge, it's as simple as that.'

0:20:16 > 0:20:19'How badly are you going to hurt this guy?'

0:20:19 > 0:20:21'Not badly at all.

0:20:21 > 0:20:24'He will not have a broken limb or broken arm.

0:20:24 > 0:20:27'He will not be put into intensive care or anything like that.

0:20:27 > 0:20:33'He will probably get a couple of black eyes and a cracked rib.

0:20:33 > 0:20:36'Nothing which you didn't suffer at rugby, OK?

0:20:36 > 0:20:38'But he'll get scared and that's what I want him to do.'

0:20:38 > 0:20:41'OK, Darry, I've said I'll do it, I'll do it, don't worry.'

0:20:41 > 0:20:43'Boris, I really mean it, I love you.'

0:20:44 > 0:20:47Yes, er, taken out of context

0:20:47 > 0:20:52that conversation could indeed seem embarrassing, I...

0:20:52 > 0:20:55But it's completely in context.

0:20:55 > 0:20:59The reality is nothing eventuated from that conversation,

0:20:59 > 0:21:01it is perfectly true...

0:21:01 > 0:21:04But the point is you didn't demur when he said this,

0:21:04 > 0:21:10this guy will be beaten up and a couple of broken ribs and so on.

0:21:10 > 0:21:15This is a friend of yours who wants the details of a journalist

0:21:15 > 0:21:17who's making his life a misery

0:21:17 > 0:21:20and you said you would get the address and so on.

0:21:20 > 0:21:21Well...

0:21:21 > 0:21:24- "I said I'd do it, Darius, I'll do it."- Yeah.

0:21:24 > 0:21:27Er, nothing eventuated from that conversation.

0:21:27 > 0:21:31It was, you know, what can I say, nobody...

0:21:31 > 0:21:34What do you feel hearing it again now, because you were laughing.

0:21:34 > 0:21:37Well, obviously I feel indignation

0:21:37 > 0:21:40that people taped my private phone calls, that's what I feel.

0:21:40 > 0:21:45And I feel what a load of old cobblers, that's what I feel.

0:21:45 > 0:21:4615 years ago,

0:21:46 > 0:21:50the Guppy tape drew Johnson straight into an elephant trap.

0:21:50 > 0:21:53Boris was caught on tape as well.

0:21:53 > 0:21:55Ha, ha, ha, ha, richly comic. Yes.

0:21:55 > 0:21:59Boris was on tape talking to Darius Guppy.

0:21:59 > 0:22:01A very great man,

0:22:01 > 0:22:04I don't want to be totally stitched up here.

0:22:04 > 0:22:06What you want and what you don't want...

0:22:06 > 0:22:08No, he was a school friend, wasn't he?

0:22:08 > 0:22:09And a great chap.

0:22:09 > 0:22:12A great chap despite being a convicted fraudster.

0:22:12 > 0:22:17Convicted fraudster, went very sadly wrong. Major goof.

0:22:17 > 0:22:19And one of the ways he went wrong is ringing you up on tape

0:22:19 > 0:22:24and suggesting you help him beat up a journalist who was looking into him.

0:22:24 > 0:22:26That did come up.

0:22:28 > 0:22:31I won't deny that did come up. I'm not ashamed of it.

0:22:31 > 0:22:33What are you not ashamed of, Boris?

0:22:33 > 0:22:37Whatever there is not be ashamed of.

0:22:37 > 0:22:40Boris had bumbled so endearingly

0:22:40 > 0:22:43that he became a regular on Have I got News for You.

0:22:43 > 0:22:47There is a sense of guilt that part of Boris's success has been built

0:22:47 > 0:22:53on his performances on that show, and I know Paul feels very ambivalent

0:22:53 > 0:22:56about whether he should feel proud about helping this man

0:22:56 > 0:22:59to become Mayor, let alone the next Prime Minister

0:22:59 > 0:23:01or whatever fate we've got coming for us.

0:23:09 > 0:23:12Boris Johnson survived the Guppy incident

0:23:12 > 0:23:16when Max Hastings let him off with a severe warning to behave himself.

0:23:16 > 0:23:20He'd returned to London as the Telegraph's star political columnist

0:23:20 > 0:23:22and was much in demand on celebrity TV.

0:23:29 > 0:23:32Johnson so impressed Conrad Black,

0:23:32 > 0:23:34the notorious Telegraph Group proprietor,

0:23:34 > 0:23:36that he made him editor of the Spectator.

0:23:36 > 0:23:41Johnson promised he would not seek to become an MP while he was editor,

0:23:41 > 0:23:45but he almost immediately broke his word to Black's fury.

0:23:45 > 0:23:48Boris is a scoundrel.

0:23:48 > 0:23:52I said to him, "You just can't do this. I mean, not to us, anyway."

0:23:54 > 0:23:58So we kind of took that as the cue that, yes, he could go on and be

0:23:58 > 0:24:03as devious as he wanted as long as we weren't the victims of it, you see.

0:24:04 > 0:24:07Boris had married Marina Wheeler

0:24:07 > 0:24:10after his first marriage had broken down.

0:24:10 > 0:24:13She was a successful left wing lawyer who didn't share

0:24:13 > 0:24:16her husband's love of the limelight.

0:24:16 > 0:24:20But she put in a rare public appearance when Johnson was selected

0:24:20 > 0:24:23as the Tory candidate for the safe seat of Henley on Thames.

0:24:23 > 0:24:29I'm amazed, bowled over and thrilled beyond my wildest dreams.

0:24:29 > 0:24:33Thank you, Marina, for turning up...

0:24:33 > 0:24:37Johnson duly won Henley in the 2001 general election

0:24:37 > 0:24:40which saw David Cameron also become an MP

0:24:40 > 0:24:43for a nearby seat in Oxfordshire.

0:24:43 > 0:24:47Both men were quickly marked out as Tories to watch.

0:24:47 > 0:24:51Johnson, who was 37, continued to edit The Spectator

0:24:51 > 0:24:55even when he was promoted to being a junior shadow minister.

0:24:55 > 0:24:59He characteristically believed he could get the best of both worlds.

0:24:59 > 0:25:03Well, I said my policy on cake was pro having it and pro eating it.

0:25:03 > 0:25:06I did a kind of circus act

0:25:06 > 0:25:10where I had these two ponies

0:25:10 > 0:25:13and gradually they got further and further apart

0:25:13 > 0:25:16and with inevitable results.

0:25:18 > 0:25:21Johnson found himself regularly in trouble

0:25:21 > 0:25:24when his mischief-making Spectator articles

0:25:24 > 0:25:26were taken to be official Tory policy.

0:25:26 > 0:25:29On top of that the tabloids reported he was having

0:25:29 > 0:25:32a long-term love affair with Petronella Wyatt,

0:25:32 > 0:25:34who was one of his staff.

0:25:35 > 0:25:39Johnson dismissed the reports as an inverted pyramid of piffle

0:25:39 > 0:25:42and arrived at a Spectator awards lunch.

0:25:42 > 0:25:45Johnson, I'll collect it in a minute.

0:25:45 > 0:25:48The Tory Leader Michael Howard had accepted Johnson's denial

0:25:48 > 0:25:51but couldn't resist ribbing his shadow minister.

0:25:51 > 0:25:53Well, thank you, thank you very much indeed,

0:25:53 > 0:25:58Boris, there is nothing like The Spectator for stirring up

0:25:58 > 0:26:02and stimulating political controversy.

0:26:02 > 0:26:06Indeed, in all senses of the word it could best be described

0:26:06 > 0:26:09as political Viagra.

0:26:10 > 0:26:12Keep it up, Boris.

0:26:12 > 0:26:15Johnson said, "That's below the belt."

0:26:17 > 0:26:20Two days later came confirmation of the affair.

0:26:21 > 0:26:26And Michael Howard sacked Johnson for lying to him.

0:26:27 > 0:26:31I don't, if it's all right with you, wish to...

0:26:31 > 0:26:34And I understand why you have to bring all this sort of thing up.

0:26:34 > 0:26:36I don't particularly want to get into stuff

0:26:36 > 0:26:40which is done and dusted and very largely concerns my private life.

0:26:40 > 0:26:42Well, very largely concerns,

0:26:42 > 0:26:45but it's also a political thing, because as a result of this

0:26:45 > 0:26:48you were forced to resign from the front bench.

0:26:48 > 0:26:50Whoa, I was sacked.

0:26:50 > 0:26:52Let's be clear, I was sacked.

0:26:52 > 0:26:57- Let's not muck... I said, "Sack me, or sack me."- Yeah.

0:26:57 > 0:27:01- And he sacked you.- Yeah.

0:27:01 > 0:27:03I suppose in a way you made it worse for yourself.

0:27:03 > 0:27:09Because you had publicly said that these stories about this love affair

0:27:09 > 0:27:12were an inverted pyramid of piffle, which you said with

0:27:12 > 0:27:15your characteristically inventive language,

0:27:15 > 0:27:18and then it turned out to be true.

0:27:18 > 0:27:23So can you see why people don't necessarily always feel

0:27:23 > 0:27:25they can take you at your word?

0:27:25 > 0:27:27All that kind of thing, which as I say,

0:27:27 > 0:27:32very largely concerns my private life, has been the subject

0:27:32 > 0:27:36of exhaustive questioning put to me over many years.

0:27:36 > 0:27:40I had to leave The Spectator one way or another.

0:27:40 > 0:27:44All that turned out for the best, in my view.

0:27:46 > 0:27:49One of Howard's chief advisers was David Cameron.

0:27:49 > 0:27:52And I asked Cameron at the time about Johnson's sacking

0:27:52 > 0:27:55in an interview that hasn't been seen before.

0:27:55 > 0:27:57Did you think it was a good idea

0:27:57 > 0:27:59for Michael Howard to sack Boris Johnson?

0:27:59 > 0:28:01I think, I mean, it's obviously...

0:28:01 > 0:28:04That's one for him rather than for me,

0:28:04 > 0:28:07but I mean, I think there's a very difficult issue

0:28:07 > 0:28:11when you've said one thing publicly and then you have to say

0:28:11 > 0:28:15something else publicly and even though it's about your private life,

0:28:15 > 0:28:20when you're talking to the press it becomes part of your public life

0:28:20 > 0:28:22and that's incredibly tough.

0:28:22 > 0:28:24But I think that is something that, you know,

0:28:24 > 0:28:27you've got to deal with in one way or another.

0:28:27 > 0:28:30You haven't really answered the question, I mean, you...

0:28:30 > 0:28:32Well, the short answer is yes, I think, I think,

0:28:32 > 0:28:34you know, that was, you know,

0:28:34 > 0:28:36given the circumstances I think that was the right decision,

0:28:36 > 0:28:40but, I mean, Boris is a very close friend of mine and colleague

0:28:40 > 0:28:44and you know, it was obviously a very tough time for him as well.

0:28:44 > 0:28:48Boris, are you going to save your marriage?

0:28:48 > 0:28:51I'll do whatever I can... She's locked me out.

0:28:51 > 0:28:53Boris was in the doghouse.

0:28:53 > 0:28:56His wife kicked him out of the house for three weeks.

0:28:56 > 0:29:00I think all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.

0:29:00 > 0:29:05And he was out of a job. He realised his political career had stalled.

0:29:07 > 0:29:12And he watched as David Cameron, his Eton and Bullingdon buddy,

0:29:12 > 0:29:17dramatically overtook him by winning the Tory Leadership race in 2005.

0:29:17 > 0:29:20Cameron excluded Johnson from his inner circle.

0:29:21 > 0:29:24While professing loyalty to his new Leader,

0:29:24 > 0:29:29at the party conference Boris stole the headlines from Dave.

0:29:29 > 0:29:31Johnson, who was soon to have another affair,

0:29:31 > 0:29:35exceeded his shadow brief by publicly contradicting Cameron.

0:29:35 > 0:29:38What do you do with a problem like Boris?

0:29:38 > 0:29:41Boris has strong views about lots of things, I try to get him to stick

0:29:41 > 0:29:44to higher education and I think that's probably the right answer.

0:29:48 > 0:29:51In fact, it was to turn out that Cameron had other plans

0:29:51 > 0:29:54to make use of Boris Johnson's undoubted media celebrity

0:29:54 > 0:29:57and public name recognition.

0:29:57 > 0:30:00Having failed to find a suitable Tory candidate

0:30:00 > 0:30:04to stand for Mayor of London, Cameron sounded Boris out.

0:30:04 > 0:30:07Which way is the exit?

0:30:07 > 0:30:09I remember when Boris was trying to decide

0:30:09 > 0:30:12whether he would run as Mayor of London, and he asked me out to lunch.

0:30:12 > 0:30:15I said I thought he should go for it, I thought he could do it

0:30:15 > 0:30:17and I thought he'd do it very well,

0:30:17 > 0:30:19all of which I think I was right about,

0:30:19 > 0:30:22but he said, "Have you got any advice?"

0:30:22 > 0:30:23I said, "Yes, lock up your willy."

0:30:25 > 0:30:29After some dithering, Johnson decided he would stand for Mayor.

0:30:29 > 0:30:32Many people at the time thought it was a hopeless cause.

0:30:32 > 0:30:34London was traditionally Labour

0:30:34 > 0:30:37and the incumbent Mayor Ken Livingstone

0:30:37 > 0:30:38had seemed to make the job his own.

0:30:38 > 0:30:42This is an excellent opportunity for London to have someone

0:30:42 > 0:30:45who I think can unite Londoners, can inspire Londoners,

0:30:45 > 0:30:47and can give leadership to what is one of...

0:30:47 > 0:30:50the greatest city in the world and it needs a great leader.

0:30:50 > 0:30:51What do you mean, "one of the...?"

0:30:51 > 0:30:54- You're quite right. - The greatest city in the world.

0:30:54 > 0:30:58London is the greatest city in the world. Sorry, I don't want to interrupt you.

0:30:58 > 0:30:59He's making a very good point.

0:30:59 > 0:31:03It's a fantastic chance to change the government of London

0:31:03 > 0:31:05and to institute a new type and style

0:31:05 > 0:31:07of administration in this city.

0:31:07 > 0:31:10I recognised immediately he said he was going to run,

0:31:10 > 0:31:12this was going to be my most formidable opponent.

0:31:12 > 0:31:16Because people laugh at him, you know, I would never miss

0:31:16 > 0:31:19Have I Got News For You when he was on, I'd almost fall off the chair.

0:31:19 > 0:31:20That's a very powerful quality.

0:31:22 > 0:31:25Boris makes people feel good about themselves.

0:31:25 > 0:31:28It's an incredibly powerful force to have in politics,

0:31:28 > 0:31:31not many people have got that. He therefore can get away with a lot.

0:31:36 > 0:31:38Though his popular appeal wasn't in doubt,

0:31:38 > 0:31:41his mayoral candidacy raised the key question -

0:31:41 > 0:31:44which was the real Boris Johnson?

0:31:44 > 0:31:47Was he competent and serious enough to do a big job,

0:31:47 > 0:31:51or was just a gaffe-prone joker who flew by the seat of his pants.

0:31:51 > 0:31:55He gets up incredibly early and then he will run and have breakfast

0:31:55 > 0:31:57and then he'll write a speech and then he'll go to work.

0:31:57 > 0:32:01I mean, he's already done a full day's work by eight o'clock.

0:32:03 > 0:32:05Because there is this extraordinary sort of contrast

0:32:05 > 0:32:09between that sort of drivenness and how he seems to look,

0:32:09 > 0:32:11as if he's a shambles.

0:32:11 > 0:32:14Yeah, it's very, very clever.

0:32:14 > 0:32:17Boris isn't pretending to be chaotic,

0:32:17 > 0:32:18he really is utterly chaotic,

0:32:18 > 0:32:22and getting Boris to do his expenses or to fill in pieces of paper

0:32:22 > 0:32:25or sign forms is an almost impossible task.

0:32:25 > 0:32:29He's always been like that and in a way it's a form of...

0:32:29 > 0:32:32It's unusual, he's got discipline when he wants to have it,

0:32:32 > 0:32:34when he thinks something's important enough,

0:32:34 > 0:32:38but if it's something that is going to seriously promote his interests,

0:32:38 > 0:32:41Boris will be there at the right time on the right day.

0:32:41 > 0:32:45He's a sly fox disguised as a teddy bear.

0:32:45 > 0:32:48He's very clever and he's very likeable.

0:32:48 > 0:32:50Do you trust him?

0:32:50 > 0:32:55Do I trust him not to betray me personally? Yes, I do.

0:32:55 > 0:33:01Do I trust him to do everything he says he will do

0:33:01 > 0:33:04if doing it subsequent to his promising to do it

0:33:04 > 0:33:08gets in the way of the shortest possible distance between where he is

0:33:08 > 0:33:10and where his ambition wishes to take him?

0:33:10 > 0:33:11No, I do not.

0:33:12 > 0:33:16David Cameron was delighted when Johnson beat Livingstone

0:33:16 > 0:33:18to become London Mayor in 2008,

0:33:18 > 0:33:21as it showed the Tories then still in opposition

0:33:21 > 0:33:25could win in a traditional Labour stronghold.

0:33:25 > 0:33:29I remember a terrifying sense of responsibility

0:33:29 > 0:33:33and the real, real weight of the, you know, sense

0:33:33 > 0:33:36that I'd taken on something that was of massive importance

0:33:36 > 0:33:40to millions of people and I'd jolly well better get it right.

0:33:42 > 0:33:46Johnson regarded his new job as a public audition

0:33:46 > 0:33:49for an even higher political stage.

0:33:49 > 0:33:51To help project his image,

0:33:51 > 0:33:56he appointed a former BBC political reporter as his chief spin-doctor.

0:33:56 > 0:34:00Guto Harri has never talked publicly before about his role.

0:34:01 > 0:34:04What I thought was that there was a mission there

0:34:04 > 0:34:08over four years of taking him from celebrity to statesman,

0:34:08 > 0:34:11but crucially without losing the celebrity.

0:34:11 > 0:34:14One of Guto Harri's first photocalls for the mayor

0:34:14 > 0:34:17was to promote a clean-up of London rivers.

0:34:22 > 0:34:24The mayor had made the wrong kind of splash,

0:34:24 > 0:34:28one of a number of early pratfalls.

0:34:28 > 0:34:30To help fight crime in London,

0:34:30 > 0:34:34Johnson had appointed as his deputy mayor Ray Lewis.

0:34:34 > 0:34:38He saw Lewis as an inspirational figure with a direct line

0:34:38 > 0:34:40to disaffected black youths.

0:34:40 > 0:34:42But Lewis came under harsh public scrutiny,

0:34:42 > 0:34:46when he was reported to have souped up his CV.

0:34:46 > 0:34:49The Mayor was determined to stand by his man.

0:34:49 > 0:34:52But in an agonised meeting at City Hall,

0:34:52 > 0:34:55with his enemies calling for Lewis's head,

0:34:55 > 0:34:59Johnson was reluctantly forced to concede that his deputy mayor

0:34:59 > 0:35:02was dead in the water after just eight weeks.

0:35:04 > 0:35:07Just tell me the story of when it became clear

0:35:07 > 0:35:08Ray Lewis had to go.

0:35:08 > 0:35:11Infandum jubes renovare delorem.

0:35:11 > 0:35:13You're asking me to go over terrible...

0:35:13 > 0:35:15You want to renew the misery.

0:35:15 > 0:35:17What do you want, what do you want from me?

0:35:17 > 0:35:20Well, I want your account of what it was like for you

0:35:20 > 0:35:23when here was a guy who you'd brought in, he was symbolic...

0:35:23 > 0:35:25He was, yeah.

0:35:25 > 0:35:28And then, er, he had to go.

0:35:28 > 0:35:31It was, it was a grim business.

0:35:31 > 0:35:34And I feel, I feel,

0:35:34 > 0:35:39I feel sad thinking about it, but maybe that was a function

0:35:39 > 0:35:43of being so, so new in the post. How about that?

0:35:43 > 0:35:47Ray Lewis wasn't the only one of Boris Johnson's newly appointed team

0:35:47 > 0:35:49of advisers to run into trouble.

0:35:49 > 0:35:53Today David Ross resigned from his position,

0:35:53 > 0:35:56the fourth key adviser to go since the Mayor took office.

0:35:56 > 0:35:59There was an expectation that the Boris mayoralty

0:35:59 > 0:36:01would be a disaster and there were a number of people who fell

0:36:01 > 0:36:04by the wayside in the first few months, but with Boris,

0:36:04 > 0:36:09it was taken as evidence that he couldn't organise the proverbial,

0:36:09 > 0:36:11you know, drinks session in a brewery.

0:36:11 > 0:36:15Ironically, Johnson had inherited the responsibility for organising

0:36:15 > 0:36:17the biggest party in London's history,

0:36:17 > 0:36:20the forthcoming Olympic Games.

0:36:20 > 0:36:24I don't think that Boris had remotely understood the size

0:36:24 > 0:36:26and complexity and scope and scale of it,

0:36:26 > 0:36:29and I think at first he probably came there

0:36:29 > 0:36:32thinking that this was a sort of a bit of an extravaganza,

0:36:32 > 0:36:33did London need it?

0:36:33 > 0:36:36Am I going to have loads of resources

0:36:36 > 0:36:37diverted from other things?

0:36:37 > 0:36:42I just think he looked at it as something that he didn't grasp.

0:36:42 > 0:36:44I think what Seb is saying has a grain of truth,

0:36:44 > 0:36:49I did start off being probably for him and for LOCOG,

0:36:49 > 0:36:52but thinking, you know, I think they began thinking,

0:36:52 > 0:36:55"Oh, golly, is the Mayor going to start screwing things up?"

0:36:55 > 0:37:00But I rapidly became an evangelical believer in it.

0:37:02 > 0:37:05I'm sure the public persona, the public perception

0:37:05 > 0:37:08is that this is somebody that sort of bumbles from decision to decision

0:37:08 > 0:37:11and from event to event.

0:37:11 > 0:37:13It's much, much sharper than that.

0:37:13 > 0:37:17You know, he knows exactly what he's doing.

0:37:17 > 0:37:21You know, I don't believe there's a moment of his day

0:37:21 > 0:37:25that isn't choreographed to either London or him.

0:37:32 > 0:37:34After his shaky first few months,

0:37:34 > 0:37:38Johnson was developing his own way of playing the role of mayor.

0:37:38 > 0:37:40Although he had relatively few formal powers,

0:37:40 > 0:37:43he saw himself as London's champion.

0:37:43 > 0:37:45Recalling his immigrant roots,

0:37:45 > 0:37:48Johnson viewed the city as a dynamic melting pot

0:37:48 > 0:37:52that could help power Britain's economic recovery.

0:37:52 > 0:37:56Bonjour, ce'st moi, Boris Johnson, Le Mayor de Londres.

0:37:56 > 0:38:01SPEAKS RUSSIAN

0:38:01 > 0:38:04Have a very, very happy Chinese New Year, everybody.

0:38:04 > 0:38:06SPEAKS MANDARIN

0:38:06 > 0:38:09The key place that Boris Johnson would bang the drum for London

0:38:09 > 0:38:11was in Whitehall.

0:38:13 > 0:38:15By now David Cameron was Prime Minister,

0:38:15 > 0:38:19and the two men would engage in friendly sparring in public.

0:38:24 > 0:38:27But behind the scenes their political rivalry was much fiercer.

0:38:27 > 0:38:30When Number ten announced cuts in housing benefits

0:38:30 > 0:38:33that would worst affect London's poorest families

0:38:33 > 0:38:38Johnson launched an uncompromising assault on the Cameron government.

0:38:38 > 0:38:42We will not accept any kind of Kosovo-style, you know,

0:38:42 > 0:38:44social cleansing of London,

0:38:44 > 0:38:46you are not going to see, on my watch,

0:38:46 > 0:38:50you're not going to see thousands of families being evicted from the place

0:38:50 > 0:38:53where they've been living and where they have put down roots,

0:38:53 > 0:38:55that is not what Londoners want to see,

0:38:55 > 0:38:58it's not what we are going to accept.

0:38:58 > 0:39:01Johnson's social cleansing jibe infuriated Cameron.

0:39:01 > 0:39:04And sources close to the Prime Minister hit back.

0:39:06 > 0:39:09The 11 o'clock daily briefing to journalists came at Number 10

0:39:09 > 0:39:11and is one of the rare occasions, to be fair,

0:39:11 > 0:39:15with the Prime Minister, where somebody in Number 10 authorised,

0:39:15 > 0:39:18you know, a pretty brutal briefing against Boris.

0:39:18 > 0:39:22The net day's headlines reflected the tension between the two men.

0:39:22 > 0:39:24It was one of a series of clashes

0:39:24 > 0:39:28that the Mayor would have with the Prime Minister.

0:39:28 > 0:39:30Almost all the arguments are about us

0:39:30 > 0:39:32trying to get a better deal for London,

0:39:32 > 0:39:35and to make sure that the Government doesn't make a mistake

0:39:35 > 0:39:39and sometimes I will say something that seems to be very critical

0:39:39 > 0:39:41of the Government or a Government policy

0:39:41 > 0:39:43and yes, a lot of plaster comes off the ceiling,

0:39:43 > 0:39:46but that is the job of the Mayor.

0:39:48 > 0:39:51Johnson was reshaping the Mayor's job in his own image.

0:39:51 > 0:39:53When he persuaded Barclay's to promise £50 million

0:39:53 > 0:39:55for his cycle hire scheme

0:39:55 > 0:39:59the bank wanted them known as Barclay Bikes.

0:39:59 > 0:40:02But almost inevitably they became Boris Bikes.

0:40:03 > 0:40:06And Brand Boris even advertised himself

0:40:06 > 0:40:07on the BBC's most popular programme.

0:40:07 > 0:40:10I'm going to have a pint of bitter.

0:40:10 > 0:40:13It's such an honour to have you here, Mr Mayor.

0:40:13 > 0:40:14Oh, please call me Boris.

0:40:14 > 0:40:16I nearly went into politics myself, you know.

0:40:16 > 0:40:19Really? Well, if, if you have any ideas for how I could help Walford,

0:40:19 > 0:40:22here's my card.

0:40:22 > 0:40:24- Thank you so much.- Good.

0:40:24 > 0:40:29Yet Boris Johnson's winning manner was to land him back in the soup.

0:40:29 > 0:40:32He was a risk-taker, as he showed when promoting a volunteering scheme

0:40:32 > 0:40:34at a go-kart track.

0:40:34 > 0:40:36And there were new reports

0:40:36 > 0:40:39that the Mayor hadn't been following Max Hastings' advice

0:40:39 > 0:40:40to keep himself zipped up.

0:40:44 > 0:40:47It was claimed he was having an affair with an art dealer

0:40:47 > 0:40:50who he'd made his unpaid adviser on urban sculpture.

0:40:52 > 0:40:54David Cameron was later to joke

0:40:54 > 0:40:59that he was going to give Johnson a book called The Joy Of S...Cycling.

0:40:59 > 0:41:02But Johnson himself was again kicked out of his house.

0:41:02 > 0:41:05And Cameron's then-spin doctor Andy Coulson advised the mayor

0:41:05 > 0:41:08he should hold a confessional press conference.

0:41:08 > 0:41:11Johnson vetoed the idea.

0:41:11 > 0:41:14He argues the public isn't interested in his private life.

0:41:14 > 0:41:19And he imposed what might be called a blanket ban on talking about it.

0:41:19 > 0:41:25The difficulty is that one statement invariably poses another question,

0:41:25 > 0:41:29and one thing, you know,

0:41:29 > 0:41:34one line of enquiry leads to another.

0:41:34 > 0:41:37OK. If you talked about your private life,

0:41:37 > 0:41:41there would be more interesting things that would come out.

0:41:43 > 0:41:46Just to go back to what I was saying just now,

0:41:46 > 0:41:48and again I admire your journalistic technique,

0:41:48 > 0:41:52but I think I've given you the answer that I'm going to give.

0:41:53 > 0:41:55Boris has been fantastic copy for the Eye,

0:41:55 > 0:42:01I mean all the way through, from his earliest performances as an MP,

0:42:01 > 0:42:07through to the mass infidelities which have littered his career.

0:42:07 > 0:42:10I mean he's our Berlusconi, but somehow it's funnier.

0:42:15 > 0:42:18The bounder Boris bounced back once again,

0:42:18 > 0:42:22but he was in for a rude awakening.

0:42:28 > 0:42:31When the London riots broke out in the summer of 2011,

0:42:31 > 0:42:33the Mayor was on a family holiday

0:42:33 > 0:42:35in a camper van in the Canadian Rockies.

0:42:38 > 0:42:42Johnson at first refused to return home but then changed his mind.

0:42:45 > 0:42:47He headed for south London,

0:42:47 > 0:42:49the scene of some of the worst rioting,

0:42:49 > 0:42:53and for a change he was met by a hostile crowd,

0:42:53 > 0:42:56who wanted to know why the police had gone AWOL.

0:42:56 > 0:42:59Let me tell you, let me tell you, tonight...

0:42:59 > 0:43:02You talk about robust policing, what does that actually mean?

0:43:02 > 0:43:07Tonight we are going to have a huge number of police on the streets...

0:43:07 > 0:43:08Where were they?

0:43:08 > 0:43:12By 5 o'clock we knew they we're going to hit and no-one was here,

0:43:12 > 0:43:15I was in the salon when a brick come through the wall,

0:43:15 > 0:43:18through the window, and no-one was here to defend me.

0:43:18 > 0:43:23I know. And that's why we are putting many more police on the streets.

0:43:23 > 0:43:28It was tough, it was really, and the people felt angry,

0:43:28 > 0:43:32because they'd seen their shops, their property attacked

0:43:32 > 0:43:36and sod it, the sodding Mayor had been somewhere else.

0:43:37 > 0:43:40Back in City Hall, Johnson worried that that the riots

0:43:40 > 0:43:43might have wrecked his pitch for London,

0:43:43 > 0:43:45and his chances of re-election.

0:43:46 > 0:43:50But in his first term, he'd carved out a reputation as his own man.

0:43:50 > 0:43:53And he was far from an identikit right winger -

0:43:53 > 0:43:56he has an unpredictable mix of beliefs,

0:43:56 > 0:44:01he is pro-banker, pro-immigrant, a Eurosceptic who's pro-gay marriage,

0:44:01 > 0:44:03but likes to be seen as tough on crime.

0:44:05 > 0:44:09Police officers! Police!

0:44:17 > 0:44:22Last year's mayoral election was a Johnson vs Livingstone rematch.

0:44:22 > 0:44:25Each man accused the other of being a tax avoider.

0:44:25 > 0:44:28- No. That's not true. - You don't avoid tax on that.

0:44:28 > 0:44:31You have to pay tax on the money you take out.

0:44:31 > 0:44:35- The guy's a liar. - Can I get a word in edgeways?

0:44:35 > 0:44:38The guy's a barefaced liar.

0:44:38 > 0:44:41Following that programme the two men had nearly come to blows.

0:44:41 > 0:44:46But it was the mayor who sought to kiss and make up.

0:44:46 > 0:44:48What I found amazing, was here is someone

0:44:48 > 0:44:51who very well may be Prime Minister one day,

0:44:51 > 0:44:53may have to lead the nation,

0:44:53 > 0:44:56and he was worried that I was angry with him.

0:44:56 > 0:44:59And this is a breathtaking weakness in a politician.

0:44:59 > 0:45:02He wants to be loved, even by the people he's destroying.

0:45:04 > 0:45:06Johnson once more beat Livingstone -

0:45:06 > 0:45:08and after four years working and playing

0:45:08 > 0:45:10as hard as he had ever done in his life.

0:45:10 > 0:45:14the Mayor, who has the ability to take a power nap anywhere,

0:45:14 > 0:45:19recharged his batteries in preparation for the summer of 2012.

0:45:35 > 0:45:39The London Olympics really took off with the Hyde Park rally.

0:45:39 > 0:45:43The games gave Boris Johnson an unparalleled opportunity

0:45:43 > 0:45:45to project himself as London Mayor to the whole country

0:45:45 > 0:45:47and across the world.

0:45:48 > 0:45:54I've never seen anything like this in all my life.

0:45:55 > 0:45:57The excitement is growing so much,

0:45:57 > 0:46:00I think the Geiger counter of Olympomania

0:46:00 > 0:46:04is going to go zoink off the scale!

0:46:04 > 0:46:10Are we ready? Are we ready? Yes we are!

0:46:10 > 0:46:13The venues are ready, the stadium is ready,

0:46:13 > 0:46:16and our team GB athletes are ready, aren't they?

0:46:16 > 0:46:22There's going to be more gold, silver, bronze medals

0:46:22 > 0:46:25than you'd need to bail out Greece and Spain together.

0:46:25 > 0:46:28Final question - are you...?

0:46:28 > 0:46:30CROWD: Boris! Boris! Boris!

0:46:30 > 0:46:37Can we put on the greatest Olympic games that has ever been held?

0:46:37 > 0:46:39Well, I was very lucky to be Mayor

0:46:39 > 0:46:42at the time of the Olympic Games, is all I can say,

0:46:42 > 0:46:46and it was a jammy, it was a jammy, jammy old trick to pull.

0:46:46 > 0:46:48But what was it like for you to hear that huge crowd

0:46:48 > 0:46:51chanting, "Boris, Boris, Boris"?

0:46:51 > 0:46:53Very, very bad for you, I mean, don't do it!

0:46:53 > 0:46:56I mean, very, very bad for the ego,

0:46:56 > 0:47:04but you do understand why Roman emperors put on great games

0:47:04 > 0:47:07and great spectacles, I mean, suddenly you think,

0:47:07 > 0:47:10"Wow! This is obviously a big thing." So, you know.

0:47:10 > 0:47:13So, I mean, would you like to be a Roman emperor?

0:47:13 > 0:47:17No. they invariably came to sticky ends!

0:47:29 > 0:47:33A sticky end was the mot juste for Johnson's celebrated trip,

0:47:33 > 0:47:37which climaxed with the daring young mayor stuck on the zipwire.

0:47:37 > 0:47:42I want you to know, it's going well, it's very, very well organised.

0:47:43 > 0:47:46Get me a ladder!

0:47:51 > 0:47:54I want you to know that was far more painful

0:47:54 > 0:47:57and frightening than you might think.

0:47:57 > 0:47:59In what way?

0:47:59 > 0:48:01To start with it was jolly high up,

0:48:01 > 0:48:04and after you're stuck up there for a while

0:48:04 > 0:48:07stuff starts to chafe and so on and so forth.

0:48:07 > 0:48:09Round your groin?

0:48:09 > 0:48:12I don't want to go into these details, Michael!

0:48:12 > 0:48:15It was chafing. Chafing was involved, but...

0:48:15 > 0:48:17I thought you wrote in your book...

0:48:17 > 0:48:20Yeah, yeah, the actual... I'm only quoting you, Boris!

0:48:20 > 0:48:22This is what's so difficult, I quote you...

0:48:22 > 0:48:25I can never remember what I've written!

0:48:25 > 0:48:27You said it got very, very tight round your groin area.

0:48:27 > 0:48:31Did it? Well, if I wrote it in my book it must be absolutely correct.

0:48:31 > 0:48:35If any other politician anywhere in the world got stuck on a zipwire

0:48:35 > 0:48:37it would be, you know, disastrous,

0:48:37 > 0:48:39but with Boris it would be an absolute triumph.

0:48:39 > 0:48:44He defies all forms of gravity.

0:48:45 > 0:48:48His Olympotastic performance enhanced his image

0:48:48 > 0:48:49as a political celebrity.

0:48:51 > 0:48:55- Boris!- Good morning!- When will you be back on Have I Got News For You?

0:48:55 > 0:48:57I know! Those days are over!

0:48:57 > 0:48:59The Mayor is able to connect with a range of people

0:48:59 > 0:49:02outside the Tory stockade.

0:49:02 > 0:49:04It's a rare gift for an Eton and Bullingdon boy.

0:49:04 > 0:49:07- No more cuts?- No, no more cuts!

0:49:09 > 0:49:14He is the only feel-good politician we have in Britain.

0:49:14 > 0:49:17Everybody else is far too busy being responsible

0:49:17 > 0:49:20or telling you that austerity is going to be very miserable

0:49:20 > 0:49:23or that things are tough, or that toughness is required.

0:49:23 > 0:49:26What Boris does is make people feel good.

0:49:26 > 0:49:28At last year's Tory conference there was a hero's welcome

0:49:28 > 0:49:31for the mayor who'd again won in Labour London

0:49:31 > 0:49:35and was reaping the dividend of a successful Olympics.

0:49:35 > 0:49:37He was able to indulge in a favourite pursuit

0:49:37 > 0:49:40of teasing the Prime Minister.

0:49:40 > 0:49:44Where is Dave? Yes. Good morning. Good morning, everyone.

0:49:46 > 0:49:47There you are, Dave!

0:49:47 > 0:49:51I know that Dave will win in 2015, when the economy has turned around

0:49:51 > 0:49:57and when people are benefiting from the tough decisions you have taken,

0:49:57 > 0:49:59not least coming along to hear this speech today.

0:49:59 > 0:50:04So many... Happy birthday, by the way!

0:50:04 > 0:50:08I couldn't help laughing when Boris was making the speech.

0:50:08 > 0:50:11"Where's Dave?" And poor David Cameron,

0:50:11 > 0:50:14the wretched Prime Minister, was obliged to laugh heartily.

0:50:14 > 0:50:17I think that David Cameron would actually have liked

0:50:17 > 0:50:20to have sort of whacked him to death on the spot.

0:50:20 > 0:50:23While Cameron applauds dutifully,

0:50:23 > 0:50:26his people mutter darkly that Boris is not a team player,

0:50:26 > 0:50:29and is always scheming to steal the PM's thunder.

0:50:30 > 0:50:32Often there's that pattern

0:50:32 > 0:50:36where he seemed to want to upstage the Prime Minister.

0:50:36 > 0:50:39Nine times out of ten the row is about something of substance,

0:50:39 > 0:50:44not some sort of game being played between him and the Prime Minister.

0:50:44 > 0:50:45And the tenth time?

0:50:45 > 0:50:48Tenth time there's a sense of mischief that goes back

0:50:48 > 0:50:5030 years to school,

0:50:50 > 0:50:52and we all know how we are with school friends

0:50:52 > 0:50:54and we all know the assumptions we have with them

0:50:54 > 0:50:56and even if one of them has ended up as Prime Minister

0:50:56 > 0:50:57and the other is Mayor of London,

0:50:57 > 0:51:01to a certain extent they are both there in their short shorts in Eton,

0:51:01 > 0:51:03sort of sparring with each other slightly.

0:51:10 > 0:51:13That view of the importance of the Eton connection

0:51:13 > 0:51:15to the Cameron-Johnson relationship

0:51:15 > 0:51:17is shared by the Mayor's sister.

0:51:17 > 0:51:20What I've seen is when they're together

0:51:20 > 0:51:23it's rather sweet, because David Cameron

0:51:23 > 0:51:26sort of slightly, even though he's taller,

0:51:26 > 0:51:29looks at Boris as if he's still head boy.

0:51:30 > 0:51:33Gee, thanks, Rach(!)

0:51:33 > 0:51:36This programme was such a bad idea!

0:51:36 > 0:51:39These relationships are set very early,

0:51:39 > 0:51:41it's like birth order,

0:51:41 > 0:51:45so people shouldn't forget that he was head boy,

0:51:45 > 0:51:49Cameron was two years younger, the young pup.

0:51:49 > 0:51:52So doesn't that make Boris rather resentful

0:51:52 > 0:51:54if Cameron's become Prime Minister?

0:51:54 > 0:51:58No, it gives Boris a sense of continuing superiority.

0:51:58 > 0:52:03Why wouldn't it? He was head boy. Captain of the school.

0:52:03 > 0:52:07That is my sister at her very best,

0:52:07 > 0:52:12she is brilliantly causing trouble.

0:52:12 > 0:52:15But is there something in what Rachel says?

0:52:15 > 0:52:18Guto Harri told us that when there are rows

0:52:18 > 0:52:19between you and David Cameron,

0:52:19 > 0:52:22nine times out of ten it's about serious politics,

0:52:22 > 0:52:25but on the tenth it goes back to your time at Eton

0:52:25 > 0:52:28when you were both in short trousers.

0:52:28 > 0:52:30I don't think that's fair, I mean,

0:52:30 > 0:52:34I think a lot of sort of psychobabble about personal relationships,

0:52:34 > 0:52:38actually it comes down to the necessity,

0:52:38 > 0:52:41the hard necessity as Mayor of a great capital city

0:52:41 > 0:52:45to go into Number 10 and fight for funding for Crossrail

0:52:45 > 0:52:48or whatever it happens to be,

0:52:48 > 0:52:51to make sure by hook or by crook that you come out with what you need.

0:52:51 > 0:52:53In his five years as Mayor,

0:52:53 > 0:52:56Johnson's political stock has constantly risen.

0:52:56 > 0:52:59But though he's now often talked of as a future prime minister

0:52:59 > 0:53:03it's a frightening prospect for some who know him well.

0:53:06 > 0:53:10He is still pretty wild, he is still a pretty wild card,

0:53:10 > 0:53:12and I for one, just supposing Boris became Prime Minister,

0:53:12 > 0:53:15the idea of Boris's finger on the nuclear button,

0:53:15 > 0:53:18one day he'd get it mixed up with the button to call the maid or something.

0:53:18 > 0:53:20The classic question I get is,

0:53:20 > 0:53:23"Can you imagine him with his finger on the nuclear trigger?"

0:53:23 > 0:53:25That sends shivers down many spines,

0:53:25 > 0:53:28for me, I can imagine if Boris did have his finger

0:53:28 > 0:53:30on the nuclear trigger he would be guided

0:53:30 > 0:53:33by all kinds of classical considerations

0:53:33 > 0:53:37of how bad decisions had caused carnage for centuries thereafter,

0:53:37 > 0:53:40and he would be wise in the decision that he took.

0:53:40 > 0:53:44Guto Harri says if Boris was Prime Minister,

0:53:44 > 0:53:48the thought of Boris Johnson's finger on the trigger,

0:53:48 > 0:53:53most people say it sends shivers down their spines.

0:53:53 > 0:53:58Well, as I say, the shiver can remain firmly, up their spine

0:53:58 > 0:54:00or wherever the shiver...

0:54:00 > 0:54:02the shiver has no need to go anywhere

0:54:02 > 0:54:05because the chances of my being in a position

0:54:05 > 0:54:08to send such a shiver or such a nuclear warhead

0:54:08 > 0:54:10are vanishingly small.

0:54:14 > 0:54:15Despite his protestations,

0:54:15 > 0:54:18many of the people who know Boris best have no doubt

0:54:18 > 0:54:21about his ambition and desire to reach Number 10.

0:54:21 > 0:54:24And his father even believes he should put himself in the running

0:54:24 > 0:54:26for the Tory leadership

0:54:26 > 0:54:30by returning to Westminster as an MP before the next election

0:54:30 > 0:54:32while he is still Mayor of London.

0:54:34 > 0:54:37If Boris were to ask my advice,

0:54:37 > 0:54:42on the question of whether he ought to be considering

0:54:42 > 0:54:46being a candidate in the next election,

0:54:46 > 0:54:49OK, I'm talking about the election of 2015,

0:54:49 > 0:54:52I would say to him put your hat in the ring

0:54:52 > 0:54:54because he has done a fantastic job as Mayor

0:54:54 > 0:54:57and why not go for leader of the party?

0:54:57 > 0:54:59And if there's some mechanical thing

0:54:59 > 0:55:01saying he has to be a Member of Parliament,

0:55:01 > 0:55:03well don't tell me we can't get over that,

0:55:03 > 0:55:05we'd either change the rules

0:55:05 > 0:55:07or find a way of making him a Member of Parliament.

0:55:07 > 0:55:10Johnson won't thank his father for that,

0:55:10 > 0:55:13because he has always publicly insisted

0:55:13 > 0:55:16that he won't try to become an MP while he's still Mayor.

0:55:16 > 0:55:19And until now he has repeatedly claimed

0:55:19 > 0:55:22that he has as much chance of becoming Prime Minister

0:55:22 > 0:55:24as of being decapitated by a Frisbee

0:55:24 > 0:55:28or of being reincarnated as an olive, or as Elvis Presley.

0:55:28 > 0:55:32Do you think Boris Johnson will reach the top of the greasy pole?

0:55:32 > 0:55:36Ten years ago the idea of Boris being Prime Minister was laughable,

0:55:36 > 0:55:39now we're not laughing anymore.

0:55:39 > 0:55:42There are quite a lot of people in the Tory party

0:55:42 > 0:55:45who in their panic are liable to turn to Boris

0:55:45 > 0:55:47and say, "But he's a winner."

0:55:47 > 0:55:49Everybody likes him, they all love him, he's popular.

0:55:49 > 0:55:52And they're desperate for somebody who is popular.

0:55:52 > 0:55:54I think they'll be very silly if they do that,

0:55:54 > 0:55:57because it will mean they've stopped wanting to be a serious party.

0:55:57 > 0:56:00He knows that life is a competition,

0:56:00 > 0:56:03and he wants, always wants to be top.

0:56:03 > 0:56:05And when people ask me if he wants to be Prime Minister

0:56:05 > 0:56:08I always say, "No, he's much more ambitious than that."

0:56:10 > 0:56:15As he would put it, David Cameron, who read PPE, is Prime Minister,

0:56:15 > 0:56:17he wants to do better than that.

0:56:17 > 0:56:19So what does he want to be?

0:56:19 > 0:56:21You'll have to ask him, Michael.

0:56:21 > 0:56:24No, this is just, this is just full marks to Rachel

0:56:24 > 0:56:29for causing maximum, maximum chaos,

0:56:29 > 0:56:34she's, you know...she is joking.

0:56:34 > 0:56:36Well, you did want to be world king before.

0:56:36 > 0:56:40- She's joking around. - Would you like to be Prime Minister?

0:56:40 > 0:56:47Well, I would LIKE to be the lead singer

0:56:47 > 0:56:49of an international rock group,

0:56:49 > 0:56:53I mean, that was my aim, or a good guitarist.

0:56:53 > 0:56:57I would love to have been a world famous painter or indeed a composer,

0:56:57 > 0:57:01there are many, many things that I would like to have done

0:57:01 > 0:57:03or to have been able to do.

0:57:03 > 0:57:06But would you like to be Prime Minister?

0:57:06 > 0:57:11I think it's a very tough job being Prime Minister, very tough job.

0:57:11 > 0:57:15I mean, obviously if the ball came loose from the back of a scrum -

0:57:15 > 0:57:20which it won't - of course it would be a great thing

0:57:20 > 0:57:23to have a crack at, but it's not going to happen.

0:57:23 > 0:57:25Do you have any doubts about your ability

0:57:25 > 0:57:28to fulfil the role of Prime Minister?

0:57:28 > 0:57:31I think people who don't have doubts or anxieties

0:57:31 > 0:57:33about their, you know, ability to do things

0:57:33 > 0:57:39probably have something slightly terrifyingly awry.

0:57:39 > 0:57:42You know, we all have worries and insecurities

0:57:42 > 0:57:47but I think we've done a pretty good job so far in City Hall

0:57:47 > 0:57:51and that's what I want to continue to do.

0:57:53 > 0:57:57Throughout his life people have underestimated Boris Johnson.

0:57:57 > 0:58:01But he has shown himself to be far cannier player

0:58:01 > 0:58:03of the political game than he likes to let on.

0:58:09 > 0:58:12And he's now gone further than ever before

0:58:12 > 0:58:15in admitting his desire for the top job.

0:58:15 > 0:58:19OK, I've got that one. Oof! Yes!

0:58:19 > 0:58:22His charisma and wit have helped make him

0:58:22 > 0:58:24the most popular politician in the land.

0:58:24 > 0:58:27And he now resembles the great comic actors of the past

0:58:27 > 0:58:29who yearn to play Hamlet.

0:58:31 > 0:58:33But his life story so far suggests

0:58:33 > 0:58:35that if Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson

0:58:35 > 0:58:37were to become the country's leading man,

0:58:37 > 0:58:40the British people would spend his time in office

0:58:40 > 0:58:42on the very edge of their seats.