Boris Johnson’s biography still blank on government website amid pressure to include ‘sleaze and scandal’

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Louise Thomas

Editor

The official government history of Boris Johnson’s time as prime minister must include “sleaze and scandal” critics have said - after it emerged it is still blank two years on.

The UK government has commissioned pen portraits of ex-PMs dating back to Robert Walpole.

But Mr Johnson’s entry remains empty, even though he was ousted from office in the summer of 2022.

Critics said the disgraced politician’s biography would be “impossible to write” as it would have to include “sleaze and scandal”.

It comes as Mr Johnson released his own memoir of his time in No 10.

In the new book, titled Unleashed, he insists he would have won another election if he had not been forced from Downing Street.

He also says he broke no rules with lockdown parties dubbed Partygate and was the victim of a conspiracy against his leadership.

Last year a damning report found Mr Johnson deliberately lied and lied again to parliament over Partygate.

In a sensational verdict, a cross-party group of MPs said they would have recommended he be suspended for 90 days had he not already quit the House of Commons.

But the privileges committee ruled that the former prime minister should still suffer the humiliation of being stripped of his Commons pass.

Mr Johnson hit back at the conclusion, calling it “deranged” and “the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination”.

Since he left office there has been no update on his entry on a list of Past Prime Ministers on the official gov.uk government website.

His entry features only his name and photograph and the words “2019 to 2022”.

Tony Blair’s entry, by contrast, is 600 words long and describes how the former Labour prime minister was “seen as a new kind of politician with enormous charisma, arguably the finest opposition leader of modern times – even succeeding in reforming ‘Clause IV’ of the Labour constitution. It was of little surprise when Labour won the 1997 general election by a landslide majority of 179.”

Lib Dem Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper said: "Boris Johnson will go down in history as a disgraced Prime Minister who couldn’t keep his word to the British people.

"It is no wonder his entry remains blank after all this time. It is impossible to write about his time in Downing Street without including the sleaze and scandals, lies and cover ups."

Also yet to be updated is the entry for Liz Truss, who followed Mr Johnson into No 10 but lasted less than six weeks in office following the economic fall-out to her disastrous mini-Budget. And Rishi Sunak who left Downing Street this summer after losing the general election after a landslide victory for the Labour party.

The Cabinet Office, Mr Johnson, Ms Truss and Mr Sunak have been approached for comment.