Remorse? No, Simply A Liar Desperately Trying To Save His Own Skin

The lip quivered. His eyes looked slightly watery. His voice cracked.

Jason Beatie

Boris Johnson certainly looked contrite as he offered his apology yesterday.

But this was not a man motivated by genuine remorse.

It was the act of someone who would do anything to save their own skin.

If it required grovelling before MPs with the penitence of a sinner forced to wear sackcloth and ashes, he would suffer that ignominy.

The Prime Minister had no choice to do otherwise.

Not for the first time, his lies had caught up with him. And not for the first time, he played the last remaining card available to him - a lame and hurried apology.

Anyone familiar with Johnson's past would have recognised this behaviour.

His whole career has been based on breaking the rules, arrogantly expecting to get away with it and, if he is caught, then rattling out a few convenient words of contrition.

This is how he went from being sacked from The Times for inventing a quotation to getting another job at the Daily Telegraph.

We saw it too when The Spectator magazine he edited ran an article claiming drunken fans were partly responsible for the Hillsborough tragedy.

Johnson later said he “bitterly regretted the comments.