User:Smartse/lying

Johnson has been accused of lying or making untruthful or misleading statements throughout his career. In 2019, The Independent listed "his seven most notorious untruths" as fabricating a quote whilst at The Times for which he was sacked, creating numerous euromyths while working for The Daily Telegraph in Brussels, misrepresenting events during the Hillsborough disaster while the editor of The Spectator, lying to Michael Howard about his extramarital affair for which he was sacked, breaking manifesto promises during his first term as London Mayor, promising that leaving the EU would provide £350 million per week for the NHS and for claiming that he said nothing about Turkey during the Brexit referendum. In 2020 Rory Stewart called Johnson "the most accomplished liar in public life - perhaps the best liar ever to serve as prime minister". Lawyer and trade unionist Peter Stefanovic produced a video chronicling and debunking misleading claims that Johnson had made to parliament which has been viewed 35 million times by September 2021. In February 2021, the political journalist and author Peter Oborne, who has written several books about the lies told by politicians, published a book about the lies told by Johnson, in which he wrote "I have never encountered a senior British politician who lies and fabricates so regularly, so shamelessly and so systematically as Boris Johnson." Stefanovic's video "partly inspired" Green Party MP Caroline Lucas to organise the leaders of six opposition parties to write to the Speaker in April 2021 urging him to allow a debate on Johnson's "consistent failure to be honest" when making statements in the House of Commons. They noted six examples where he had given misleading information. The Guardian noted that Johnson "almost never corrects the record in the chamber" and that while Johnson's spokespeople insist he follows the Ministerial Code of which honesty is part of, "No 10 will sometimes acknowledge that an error was made, but more usually brushes aside the complaint or argues that Johnson was misunderstood". Opposition MPs Dawn Butler and Ian Blackford have both openly called Johnson a liar in the House of Commons. Butler was supported by her leader Keir Starmer who accused Johnson of being "the master of untruth and half-truths". In May 2021 Laura Kuenssberg, political editor for BBC News noted that it was "rare for opposition parties to accuse a prime minister, on the record, of lying" and that Johnson's "relationship with the truth is under intense scrutiny".