Jed Mercurio jokes about Boris Johnson’s Line of Duty ‘audition’ in scathing social media post
‘We’re looking for a character with at least one redeeming moral principle’
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Your support makes all the difference.Jed Mercurio has joked that UK prime minister Boris Johnson had failed his “audition” for Line of Duty, in a scathing social media joke.
Johnson recently pledged a crackdown on drug-related crime, with punishments including travel bans and the revocation of driving licenses proposed for those caught using Class A drugs.
The PM was photographed wearing police gear early this morning (6 December) as he observed Merseyside Police raids as part of “Operation Toxic”, targeting County Lines drug dealing.
Writing on Twitter, Line of Duty creator Mercurio shared a photograph of Johnson wearing the police get-up, and joked that he had auditioned for his long-running BBC cop drama.
“Thank you for submitting your audition for the next series of #LineofDuty,” he wrote, in a message addressed to Johnson.
“But we’re looking for a character with at least one redeeming moral principle and a performance that places even just a scintilla of doubt in the audience’s mind that he might not be totally bent.”
News of Johnson’s proposed drugs crackdown has coincided with a report into drug use in the Palace of Westminster.
The Sunday Times reported that an investigation uncovered evidence of cocaine use in 11 out of 12 locations tested around the building.
A new study by the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) also revealed that public trust in politicians to act in the national interest has fallen drastically since Johnson became prime minister.
Polling data from YouGov for IPPR demonstrated that 63 per cent of the public believe that politicians are “out merely for themselves”. In 2014, when David Cameron was prime minister, the figure stood at a comparatively low 48 per cent.
The government were at the centre of a ministerial sleaze row earlier this year, when Conservative MP Owen Paterson, now resigned, was found to have breached lobbying rules.
Line of Duty concluded its sixth season earlier this year. Another series has yet to be announced, but it is widely expected to return at some point.
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