The Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson (2024) s01e03 Episode Script
Episode 3
1
This programme
contains strong language
It gets lonely at the top,
especially when you're
always putting on an act.
There's a lot of
brilliance in him,
and people admire him for it.
And when he spoke to you,
he had a way of making
you feel like you were
the most important
thing in his life.
But the man behind
the curtain, like,
you know, any
great Wizard of Oz,
you know, reveals this is a
man that's extremely haunted by
a lot of skeletons
from his past.
APPLAUSE
Good afternoon.
I have just been to see
Her Majesty the Queen
who has invited me
to form a government,
and I have accepted.
CHANTING: We want
Boris, we want Boris!
Boris Johnson is
now Prime Minister,
a world leader.
But he has problems
to contend with.
SHOUTING
We just wanted to restore
trust in our democracy,
and we're going to fulfil the
repeated promises of parliament
to the people,
and come out of the
EU on October the 31st.
No ifs or buts.
This government will work
flat out to give this country
the leadership it deserves.
And that work begins now.
Thank you very much.
I remember going
in with Carrie on
the day he went into Number 10.
I was with her as we
stood outside the door,
clapping him in as he arrived.
There had been no
previous Prime Minister
who hadn't come into
Number 10 with his wife.
So to actually come into
Number 10 with a girlfriend is
Was breaking, you know,
it was totally new ground.
So it was a concern as to whether
that would work against him.
But he was determined
when he arrived in Number 10
he would be able
to take control.
Within hours of coming
to power, in a bold move,
Boris forces out an unprecedented
number of the cabinet.
Dispensing with
rivals and critics,
he quickly assembles
loyalists and Brexiteers,
even making space for the man
who betrayed him, Michael Gove.
Right. Morning, everybody.
And, uh, it is wonderful
to see this new team
assembled here, and reflecting,
I think, the depth and breadth of
talent in our extraordinary party.
Boris chooses Matt
Hancock for Health Secretary.
Cabinet with Boris was
completely different to cabinet
with Theresa May,
as you can imagine.
And I think in
his first cabinet,
he started by saying,
"Right, we've got an hour,
"so let's try and
wrap this one up."
Fellow Etonian Jacob Rees-Mogg
becomes his new Leader
of the House of Commons.
I've nailed my
colours very firmly to
the Boris Johnson mast, and
I'm very glad that I've done so.
I think it was the
right thing to do
and he is an exceptional leader.
He promotes Gavin Williamson
to Secretary for Education.
He was asking me who
does he make Chancellor?
And I said to him,
"Make the person Chancellor
who ideally you've got
"a good relationship with,
who's ideally a friend."
And he was like, "Well, I don't
have that many friends in politics."
Yep.
Yeah. He told me he wanted
to have me in his team.
As Chancellor I was
living in Downing Street
and it meant that you'd
see more of each other
especially in informal settings.
You'd literally bump
into each other,
especially at weekends.
I remember my daughter,
at the time she would
have been about ten.
One Saturday morning she
took the dog out into the garden
and, uh, comes back up
and very sort of
matter-of-factly then said,
"Oh, Dad, I just ran
into Boris in the garden,
"he was in his boxers
again. And he's with Dylan,
"his dog, and he said, 'Oh,
uh, are you around later today?'
"and he wants to
see you about 12.
"What do you want me to tell him?"
And so, you know, that was what life
was like in Downing Street.
In amongst the Brexiteers,
Boris also appoints his younger
brother Jo, a staunch remainer.
Look, I mean, in the campaign
there were undoubtedly
promises made that have
shown to be undeliverable.
Is that an elegant way of
saying that we were lied to?
Well, look, it was
a false prospectus.
It was a fantasy set of promises
that have been shown up
for what they were.
And with just three
months to deliver Brexit,
there's one thing standing
in his way - Parliament.
It was a terrible time.
There seemed to be
a sort of rigor mortis had
taken over in Westminster.
We're going round
and round in circles.
And British politics was kind
of locked in a debilitating limbo.
We had defeated the
government 40 times
on various aspects of Brexit.
Order. Statement,
the Prime Minister.
CHANTING
Mr Speaker, with permission, I
shall make a statement on the mission
of this new
Conservative government.
Parliamentary
system plays into this
Oxford Union nonsense,
which is about you
just throw abuse around.
You try to belittle
your opponent,
you try to mock them.
Jeremy Corbyn!
Thank you. Thank
you, Mr Speaker.
If the Prime Minister
continues to pursue
a reckless no deal,
does he accept that he
would be directly flouting
the expressed will
of this parliament?
He speaks about trust in
our democracy, Mr Speaker,
and I have to say, a
most extraordinary thing
has just happened today. Did anybody
notice what happened today? We know.
Did anybody notice the terrible
metamorphosis that took place?
Like the final scene of
Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
At last, at last this
long-standing Eurosceptic,
the Right Honourable
gentleman, has been captured.
He has been jugulated,
he has been reprogrammed
by his honourable friends,
he has been turned
now into a remainer!
JEERING
He wants He wants
He has turned Labour
into the party that
I would like to look inside
Boris Johnson's head
and find what's there.
Because I think there
is a very intelligent,
calculating individual
there who lives in
a persona which is the opposite.
A Right Honourable gentleman
which has been paid by
press TV
..who repeatedly sides with
the mullahs of Tehran
rather than our friends in
the United States over
what is happening in
the Persian Gulf. How incredible
that we should even think
of entrusting that gentleman
with the stewardship
of this country's security.
Sir Ian Blackford. Hear!
Try to take Scotland,
try to take the
United Kingdom out of
the European Union
on a no deal basis,
Parliament will stop
this madness in its tracks.
Parliament was terrible. I mean,
there's no other
word to describe it.
They were sabotaging
any negotiations
with Europe if they could.
Everything was a fight.
I think it made him realise
that getting Brexit through
was going to be a
very, very difficult battle.
So something had to give.
Boris begins hatching
his own plan for dealing
with parliament,
but it's not the only
problem he's contending with.
He's negotiating a
divorce from Marina,
his second wife
and the mother of
four of his children.
And a scandal from his
past is about to break.
CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICK
Oh, that's his Mrs.
That's his wife,
yeah. His wife. Yeah.
July 2018, Boris's second
wife Marina is moving out.
It follows the
revelation of an affair
with his colleague
Carrie Symonds.
This isn't the first time
Boris has been unfaithful.
His relationship with women
is a complex one, beginning
with his first serious girlfriend
when he was a student.
I first met his beautiful
and delightful girlfriend,
Allegra Mostyn-Owen.
She'd been on the cover
of the Tatler magazine,
photographed by David Bailey.
Allegra said to me,
"Will you meet my boyfriend?
"He wants to get
into journalism."
I thought he was very
bright, very energetic,
not arrogant. Very
good company, actually.
I went to their wedding.
It was beautifully done.
Allegra wanted Boris to wear
a ring and Boris didn't want to.
And he managed to lose
the ring within about two hours
of their getting married.
Boris was 23 when
he married Allegra.
Like his parents before
him, the pair met at university.
Yes, he did tell Allegra
that she reminded him
of his mother. I mean, that's
obviously a very serious compliment.
I think he really wanted the
approval of liberal-minded,
particularly women, and was pained
if they thought he was a monster.
For example, he
was very, very stricken
when his first
marriage broke down.
He'd been very
inconsiderate in his behaviour,
but he still didn't
want it to breakdown.
Um, he's very needy, actually.
He doesn't like being alone,
and he hasn't very
often been alone.
Um, he can't bear it.
12 days after his divorce
from Allegra is finalised,
Boris marries Marina, who
is eight months pregnant.
So I think she was undoubtedly
a stabilising influence.
She was very, very good
at telling him when his
behaviour was intolerable
or when what he was doing
was intolerable. I mean,
she chucked him
out from time to time,
but she didn't sort of
hurl him into outer space.
He sort of moved to a room
down the road or something,
or go and stay with friends.
So there was a way
back on several occasions.
Seven years into his marriage,
and just after the
birth of his fourth child,
Boris becomes editor of
The Spectator magazine
and starts a relationship
with a colleague.
Uh, he was a very loyal person,
and I think that means
a lot in a relationship.
There was this solid
foundation of trust
and it got to the point
where I felt I could tell
Boris almost anything,
which was very nice,
because that
doesn't often happen.
You really felt like
he was protecting you.
He liked to see himself
as a sort of knight
from Camelot, um,
which wasn't always true, but it
was nice that he wanted to see
himself that way.
But I noticed that he was somebody
who doesn't like arguments.
Because arguing means that
the other person
might dislike him.
And whenever I
used to get angry,
I could see him
looking terrified,
so everything would
sort of be bottled up
and I wouldn't
say it would fester,
but it wasn't that healthy.
And he sort of
lacked moral courage,
and that was why
he would tell lies.
So he'd promise people things
that you knew that he never meant
to keep. And it wasn't
because he wanted to hurt
them or disappoint them.
He just wanted to please
them at that given moment.
And then he'd think, "Oh, my
God, how am I going to get out of it?"
SIRENS BLARE
Summer 2019.
Boris came to power promising
that he would get Brexit done.
But he needs his plan to
be approved by Parliament.
And so far they
have blocked him.
Lack of self-confidence
is never something that
I'd imagine would
have been written in any
of Boris's school report.
He believes in
himself in a way that,
you know, I've never
really seen in anyone else.
And it's that confidence,
it's that bravado,
it's that belief that
carries him so well.
You know, he's
willing to take risks.
He's willing to break
the mould, because Boris,
I believe, always
believes in Boris.
One month into his premiership
and Boris decides to do
something extraordinary -
shut Parliament down.
According to an old British law,
Parliament can be put into
recess if it's at the end of
a parliamentary session in
a process called prorogation.
That was like declaring
war on Parliament.
I mean, I don't think it's
ever been done before.
Not in these circumstances. I
mean, you prorogue Parliament at
the end of its parliamentary
time. But not to do it like that.
Boris's plan is that
during this recess
with Parliament
unable to challenge him,
he will be able to push through
Brexit however he wishes.
But to prorogue parliament,
he first needs permission
from Her Majesty the Queen.
Whilst Boris stays
in Westminster,
he sends his ally Jacob Rees-Mogg
on a secret mission to Balmoral.
But before Rees-Mogg
has taken off,
news of his mission has spread.
NEWS REEL: The former
Prime Minister Sir John Major
has said he would go to court
to stop Parliament being
suspended over Brexit.
People feel like it would be
extremely undemocratic to suspend
MPs from sitting, to avoid
them from expressing
a view that's opposing
to the Prime Minister.
The last time this was
done, wasn't there a civil war?
I'm thinking this is not quite
a secret as was intended.
As soon as I get to Heathrow,
people start asking
me for selfies.
We were meant to be going
as incognito as possible.
As we're getting off the plane,
we are on a telephone
call for a cabinet meeting
to approve the prorogation,
which was meant to be done
later and in a more calm sense.
But it was done literally as
we were walking off the plane.
Then we have this wonderful
trip to Balmoral in a charabanc
that's kindly sent by
the royal household
..with the late Queen's hairdresser,
who is absolutely brilliant.
So we had a very jolly journey
with him telling us stories.
And then we're taken
in to see the Queen
..joined by one of her corgis,
a very elderly and
I think deaf corgi.
And Her Majesty thought it was
not suitable for the corgi to remain.
So the Queen was trying
to shuffle at this deaf corgi
that was very reluctant to go.
And we got down to the
business of the prorogation.
BIG BEN BONGS
NEWS REEL: Boris Johnson
has successfully sought
to suspend Parliament in a bid
to prevent MPs
from thwarting Brexit.
A development, which only
four days ago, was described by
Downing Street
as entirely false.
Today the Prime
Minister basically said,
"Let's take Parliament out
of the equation so we can,
"you know, get
on with this thing."
He's acting like some
kind of tin pot dictator.
And if MPs don't stop it,
then it is no exaggeration,
it is not hyperbole to say
this is the day any semblance
of UK parliamentary
democracy absolutely dies.
Boris Johnson wants to
write himself into history,
but the methods he'll pursue
to do that could make
or break him, too.
CHANTING: Stop
the coup, stop the coup!
Within hours, the public take to
the streets accusing Boris
of undermining democracy.
People might say this was
an undemocratic move?
I'd say they wouldn't know
what they were talking about.
It's normal functioning
of our constitution.
It was this sort of
arrogant confidence
of these people that sort
of get away with things.
Demonstrations are
taking place everywhere
because people are angered
and outraged at
what is happening.
Think on, Boris. It's not
on, we're not having it,
we're not doing it!
CHANTING: Save our
democracy! Stop the coup!
While protests
continue in London,
Boris heads north
to face the public.
Thank you very much, Jake.
Well, good morning, everybody.
It's great to be
here in Rotherham
in the Magna Centre,
which is, of course,
the plural of Magnum,
which, as everybody knows,
is the Latin for ice cream.
Why are you not with them
in parliament sorting out
the mess that you have created?
Would you mind? I'm very happy.
I'm very happy to keen to see
Why don't you sort it out, Boris?
Why don't you sort it out?
Nice to meet you.
Please leave my
town. I will very soon.
You should be in Brussels
negotiating. Yes, we
have been negotiating.
You are not. You are
in Morley in Leeds.
While Boris is being
accosted in Leeds,
news breaks closer to home.
JOURNALISTS: Hello.
Mr Johnson, Mr Johnson.
His own brother
has quit the cabinet.
Can you tell us when
you're planning to resign?
I haven't got any
further comment
to say other than it's been an
honour to be MP for Orpington
and a minister under
three governments.
But it's time to move on
and I've got to get to work.
Sorry, I beg your pardon.
Are you completely at odds
with your brother, Mr Johnson?
Right. See you, folks.
How can I, or any rational
voter, trust Boris to act in
a national interest if
his own brother can't?
Uh, I'm sure you've seen in the
news Jo Johnson resigned as an MP
and minister saying he was
torn between family loyalty
and the national interest.
I've already made some
comments. Thank you very much.
I remember speaking to
Boris on the day Jo resigned,
and I often thought
the extraordinary thing
is that Jo did that without
telling Boris. Cos he's
I phoned him and said, "You
know, what does it mean?"
He said, "Well, I don't
know. He didn't even tell me."
I think he was
pretty shaken by it.
Mr Johnson, you said you
would unite our country.
If your own brother
doesn't trust you to act in
the national interest,
why should all of we?
Well, Jo doesn't agree with
me about the European Union
because it's an issue
that obviously divides
families and divides everybody.
But I think what Jo
would agree is that we
need to get on and
sort this thing out.
If your own brother has
lost faith in your plan,
surely you'll have to
be the next member of
the Johnson family to resign?
Well, uh
Are you all right?
Oh, that's all right.
I'm so, so sorry. OK, I think
that's a That is a signal for me
actively to wind up. Thank you.
It's quite hurtful, really.
I mean, it's quite painful
to know that even your own
brother is not supporting you.
Um, and he was very
isolated in this battle.
No, I was never worried about
him. I mean, he's very robust,
but you could tell
it was taking a toll.
I mean, everything in
every direction was difficult.
While he may have dealt
with parliament for now,
this is just one of a number
of plates he has spinning.
In his private life
he is still negotiating
a divorce from his wife Marina.
And the press is delving into
a previous relationship
when Boris was mayor.
I established a source who had
a huge hard drive
of emails between this young
spunky American graduate by
the name of Jennifer Arcuri,
and then occupant of
City Hall Boris Johnson.
You know, our interest in the
story, you know, it wasn't prurient,
it wasn't just about whether
they were an item sexually.
I mean, it was - did this or did it
not involve kind of improper conduct
for a person in elected office?
And his status as mayor was
at the heart of their relationship
and what he stood to offer her.
Thank you very much, everybody,
for coming along today. I hope
you are having a productive session.
And Jennifer's now going to
instruct. We've now got to go over
and talk to California.
Is that right?
Are you ready to hang? I'm ready to
hang. I'm ready to hang out, yeah, I am.
Yeah! Look at that,
Boris is hanging out!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
He's not the womaniser
people think he is.
They think because
he's got all these women
and all these
escapades, really, it's
..it's an emotional
insecurity, this man.
Now, that doesn't mean
that he didn't have
..you know, affairs or
flings with other people.
I did. So, I mean,
I was still dating.
I was 26!
..an export of London
Boris was Mayor of London
when he first met Jennifer,
a rising tech star.
And she asked him to
speak at her business's event.
He was like, MIMICS BORIS: "Er, Jennifer,
I'm going to lay this all out on the table.
II want to date you."
I said, "Oh, no, see, I'm way too
much for you. I'm high maintenance."
And he was like, "What?
Like handbags and shit?"
You know, he'd just seen,
and he had, like, a little laugh,
and I thought, "No, I
am, I'm far too much work.
This is gonna be a disaster."
And he was like, and he starts
laughing. He's like, "I like you.
I like you a lot, a lot, a lot."
And he's like, "And I can't
stop thinking about you."
One of the things I noticed
..whether it was
pressure, stress, paranoia,
therethere just
seemed to be times
when he became
very emotionally needy.
And that was when you
saw a lot of recklessness
and kind of
Mm.
..toxic behaviour.
You know, this, I don't know,
maybe the obsession
with women or, you know,
one of his friends from
childhood called it "mommy issues"
when he was
explaining to me his,
his emotional need to
be validated by women,
er, and how much that was
a big part of who he was.
It made me concerned
with how close
one could get to this man,
er, without getting burned.
I started to hear rumours
of how he had had an
affair with another woman
and had a child with her
outside of his marriage.
And he looks at me and
he says something like,
AS BORIS: "Now,
Jennifer, I like you a lot,
and I love my family
and I love my children."
He's like, "But I, you must
promise me one thing."
He's like, "You
mustn't read the news.
You mustn't read them.
Promise me you won't."
And I said, "Well,
a girl's got to ask."
AS BORIS: "And I will, I will
always be honest with you, always,
but you must never
read the paper.
You know, you have questions,
you come to me and me alone."
He said to me one time, MIMICS
BORIS: "Jennifer, I want to be very clear,
all jokes aside,
no bullshit." It
Very seriously, he's like,
"I, I, I care about you a lot,
and I never, ever
want to hurt you."
September 2019
..and Boris is in New York
meeting world leaders for a
climate summit to the United Nations.
He is just two months
into his premiership,
which has been continuously
engulfed in controversy.
But things are
about to get worse.
The Arcuri story is breaking.
BBC NEWS THEME TUNE
More scrutiny for the Prime Minister
over links to a US businesswoman.
Now, the police
watchdog is involved.
I, I've got to ask you about the allegations
against the Prime Minister today.
Have you sought reassurances
that this was not a relationship
that needed to be declared?
She's one of the most
talked about women
at the heart of a
political scandal
involving sex, money,
and foreign trips.
Did you misuse public funds?
Everything that I did was done in
complete conformity with the rules.
What was the nature of your
relationship with Jennifer Arcuri?
Were you friends or
was it something else? I
I worked incredibly hard as
Mayor of London to promote our city
And I am very happy with the
result. Are you still in touch with her?
I was very upset
about the way they
portrayed me in the press.
I left that man years ago.
I was happily moved on.
What was your relationship with
Jennifer Arcuri, Prime Minister?
Do you have an
interest to declare?
It was disgusting the
way we were treated,
you know, just the way,
jumping out of trees,
following us in the car.
I had to lay in the back
seat not to be harassed.
They stand outside my
daughter's school on school runs,
take pictures across
the the street.
I mean, it was
just so intrusive.
With press interest growing
and unsure how to respond,
Jennifer tries to reach
out to Boris for help.
II just thought, "OK,
let's, let's be logical.
I'll, I'll just send
him a text."
You know, "we
should probably talk."
And that's when II noticed
I, you know, I had been blocked.
And I thought that
was very strange.
He doesn't do things like that.
That's not who he is.
And then I got through and
he said, "Yes, hello," and I
And I said, "What, what's going
on? Why did you block me?"
And the phone was taken
GURGLES
..you know, and then you
hear this, "what do you want?"
"Who are you talking to?"
And somebody
clearly mocking me,
pretending to be
some Chinese tourist.
"Hello!" You know,
just really obnoxious.
There's no reason why
two adults couldn't speak,
especially when the
stakes are this high.
You know, it uprooted
everything in my family.
And to not be able to
speak to him about that?
What a wimp.
What a spineless coward.
And I hate saying that
because I cared a
great deal about the man,
and I know he cared about me,
But that's cowardice.
Call it what it is.
And women, if
men do that to you,
that is a get-the-hell-out-of-here-now
kind of trait.
As the story continues
making waves,
just two days later,
Boris is again under scrutiny.
This time over prorogation.
Boris maintains his
actions were legitimate
BOOING
..and any challenge is a
move to undermine Brexit.
But a private
citizen, Gina Miller,
is taking him to
the Supreme Court
to question whether
he acted lawfully.
Respect democracy Miller!
Respect democracy!
SHOUTING
To the gallows!
Respect the referendum, Miller!
Go fucking hang yourself!
To the gallows!
Traitor, traitor!
Every day, Boris Johnson
were telling people like this
that I was stealing
their Brexit.
That I was going against
the will of the people,
against their will.
And he was fuelling the
anger that they were fueler,
feeling towards me.
Go to hell!
Um
..it was unbelievable.
This is one of the biggest
constitutional cases
for 200 years.
To take on a government,
to ask the courts,
can parliament, our
entire parliament,
be closed down and bypassed?
Can a Prime Minister do this?
Is he basically
betraying our democracy
and our parliamentary
sovereignty?
All rise.
The Supreme Court will make
an historic judgment later on,
Boris Johnson's
suspension of parliament.
Over 30 million people
watched the proceedings online.
This judgment is the
unanimous judgment
of all 11 justices.
The court is bound
to conclude, therefore,
that the decision to
advise Her Majesty
to prorogue Parliament
was unlawful.
CHEERING
The ruling today speaks volumes.
This Prime Minister must open
the doors of Parliament tomorrow.
SIRENS WAIL
It was all a big game.
You've got somebody in Boris who really doesn't
care of the consequences of what he does.
It's always about winning
and being in power.
Boris is in New York
with Donald Trump
when the verdict comes through.
Well, thank you
very much everyone.
It's great to be with my
friend Boris Johnson,
and just got a position that
he's having a very easy time with.
It's much easier
than he thought.
I was just saying, is
it tougher or easier?
He said, "Well, it's, I
guess what I expected."
I think it's pretty much
what you expected. It is.
And Mr Johnson, uh, the
some of your critics are saying that you
should resign because you misled the Queen
with regard to shutting
Parliament down.
How do you respond to that?
Well, I, as I said earlier
on, thank you very much,
all, as I said earlier on,
uh, let's be absolutely clear.
Uh, we respect the
judiciary in our country.
We respect the, uhthe court.
II disagree profoundly,
uh, with what they had to say.
Mr President, what was your
reaction when you heard the
UK Supreme Court decision?
What was your reaction?
Uh, I had no reaction.
I just asked Boris,
and, you know, to him,
it's another day in the office.
He's a professional.
It's just another
day in the office.
Yeah, well, it's, tomorrow's
another day in Parliament.
That's whatthat's what
he means. LAUGHTER
We're, we're full of
respect, as I say, for the,
the justices of our
Supreme Court.
But, uh, we're going to,
we're going to push on with,
we're going to respect
what the court had to say,
but we're going to get
on and, and deliver Brexit.
I think that's what the
British people want.
In other words, he's been very
nice to the court, please, OK.
Mr President He has total
respect for the court. Yeah, Joe.
Mr President, on a separate
subject, can you explain why?
GINA MILLER: What you've got
in Boris Johnson and Donald Trump
is you had two individuals
who were playing from
exactly the same script,
which was to take their country
to a much more autocratic state,
where they're unanswerable
to the people of the country
and where they're,
through division,
they were gaining power.
Now Boris must return to
Parliament to face the music.
Why does he think he can
treat the Queen and country
withwith such utter contempt?
CHEERING
Even my five-year-old knows
that if you do something wrong,
you have to say sorry.
After yesterday's
ruling, Mr Speaker,
the Prime Minister should
have done the honourable thing
and resigned.
CHEERING
A lot of people in
Parliament were saying,
"My goodness,
the Prime Minister
has lost a case.
This is catastrophic,
this is devastating."
And I said, "No,
it probably isn't.
It is absolutely no
disrespect to the judiciary
to say I think the
court was wrong
to pronounce on
what is essentially
a political question
at a time
Order!
Whilst Boris strategizes
his next move
to push Brexit through,
the questions keep coming.
Some people don't
support your approach.
Even your own brother Jo
walked out of your government
and he said he'd
stand down as an MP
just six weeks after
agreeing to stick by you.
That must have been
really hard for you.
Yes, II, yes,
but I mean, look, we're a
very tight-knit, close-knit family.
And, there may be people
who disagree with that.
But Rachel talked about your
language though, and she said that
my brother using words like "should be hung,
drawn, quartered, tarred and feathered",
I think it's highly
reprehensible.
Did, did you talk to her about
that after she said that to you?
Well, look, I regret
I don't want to go into conversations
between, uh, members of my family,
which is very, very loving But she said it publicly,
that's why I'm asking. ..and tight knit family.
Were you having an
affair with Jennifer Arcuri?
I, I've said what I've had to
say about that matter, and I
I wouldn't ask unless it hadn't become a matter of
public I never comment on that kind of thing.
You want to believe that your
friend can be a great leader,
and you want to believe that
he can handle the pressure.
But if he can't even handle
the confrontation of
his own personal life,
the man can't clean
up his own laundry,
there's no way he's going
to do it for the country.
Uh, everything is done
with complete propriety.
And I may say, I think it is interesting,
it is interesting The reason I ask
I don't want to talk
about your private life,
it's the issue about whether
you misused public money.
That's why I'm asking whether you
were having sexual relations with her.
Well, I can certainly say there was absolutely
no, there was no question of that at all.
PRESS: Are allegations going
to ruin this conference for you?
# I am a passenger
# And I ride and I ride#
Boris needs to get Brexit done
and cement his
place in Parliament.
To do that he needs a clear
majority over the opposition.
So, he makes a decision.
He will announce an election.
It was blazingly obvious that Boris
was just going to keep going, you know,
keep driving forward relentlessly
until he got Brexit done, he had to, right?
If heif he gave up, he would have been
the shortest Prime Minister then in history.
But having faced a wave of
political and personal scandals,
and just three months
into his premiership,
it's the biggest gamble
of his career to date.
Are you ready for
the contest ahead?
CHEERING
Areare you pumped up?
Let's go out there and win!
Win that election,
win for Labour,
and get a Labour government!
# Yield to the power
# We'll be the passenger#
The thing I think that I noticed
was that having
been released finally
from that dreadful, suffocating
cockpit called Westminster for him,
he was back in the one
place that you want him.
You want him on
the public stage.
He's very good with people.
He likes interacting with people
and makes them feel good.
And that's true, I think, whether
he's, he's campaigning politically,
or he is in a social setting,
er, he's the kind of person
you'd sort of want to be around
if you want to have a good time
and have some fun conversation.
# ..all day long#
Yeah, you've definitely got
our vote, we do not like Jeremy.
That's fantastic.
It's time to bring our
divided country together.
CHEERING
It was obviously a
very pressurised time
..but I don't think
he'd be particularly
worrying his head about
details of anything, actually.
And I remember I
phoned him up and he said,
"I'm going to be working.
My hand is going to
be firmly tied to the oar.
I will be pulling
the boat along."
OK.
So, I said, "Well, if your
hand is tied to one oar,
the boat will be
going in circles.
And he said, "Good point."
And he then went
off in ancient Greek
about the effect of a boat going in
circles, which I didn't understand at all.
Oh, how are you?
Nice to see you.
Thanks, so sorry,
thanks for coming.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, nice to see you.
You've been going for 13 hours.
That's nothing, we're, we're hard
You must be exhausted. ..hard as nails.
Steel springs,
that's what we are.
How do you cope? How
do you keep your energy up?
Steel springs. 13-hour day. I don't know,
I think it's genetic, I have a lot of energy.
Fantastic.
And Haribos?
No, I don't. II sometimes
succumb to flapjacks.
He set out the general
narrative of what he wanted
and his style, he would
just keep on saying
the whole issue
is get Brexit done.
And I chatted to him and said, "Well,
you're not going to get Brexit done,
It's not all going to be over
on polling day, you know that."
And he said, "We're
going to get Brexit done.
We're going to get Brexit done."
II mean, at one
level it's clever,
but at the other level
it's totally irresponsible.
He would always
try to portray me
as some kind of evil
force within our society,
which, um, was then
parroted by the papers.
Sunday afternoon I sat
down, and I read the Daily Mail.
Page after page about what an
evil person Jeremy Corbyn was.
Page after page.
This man grows his own
vegetables, this man keeps a cat,
this man, etc, etc.
And so I got to the end
of it, I put the paper down,
I looked at the
cat and I thought
"That Corbyn, God,
he's an evil sod."
It was just
..the demonisation of me.
It was unbelievable.
A very good evening.
For the fourth time in
the space of five years,
the future of the United
Kingdom is uncertain.
And this time with
politics in deadlock,
and Brexit unresolved, the
stakes are higher than ever.
This is a conservative
gain from Labour.
This is in Greater Manchester.
Looking at a seat like that, going
from red to blue, that's astonishing.
Well, I never thought, er,
in all this time that I'd see,
er, Wrexham of all places
turning Conservative.
Boris Johnson, who just a year
ago was on the back benches,
may just have redrawn the map.
Hi, good evening
everybody, good evening.
Boris Johnson has this
extraordinary connection with voters.
People like Boris's
approach to life.
They like his ebullience,
thethe fun of
politics, the interest of it.
CHANTING: Boris,
Boris, Boris, Boris!
We have another
Conservative gain.
The Conservatives taking real
chunks out of the Labour heartland.
Hello, how are you?
Bishop Auckland has
been Labour since 1935.
Well, look, it's
gone Conservative.
Johnson, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel
commonly known as Boris Johnson,
the Conservative
Party candidate,
25,000
CHEERING
Over the past decade,
I've seen politicians
who have not paid the penalty
for getting things wrong,
not paid a political penalty.
One was Donald Trump,
and Boris Johnson.
You know, I think people
knew he was a bit of a chancer,
but for a while it
didn't seem to matter.
The character overcame that.
It is 6:13 in the morning.
The Conservatives have
won the general election,
with a hefty
majority of 80 seats.
That is our current calculation.
The last time the Tories had
a majority anything like this
was when Margaret Thatcher
was re-elected in 1987.
Thanks very much, thanks for coming,
I really appreciate it, thanks very much.
Thank you, thanks for coming.
Thanks for coming. How are you?
My little dog has come
to meet you. Teazel.
Come on, what's the name
of your? Teazel. Teazel.
How are you, meeting
Teazel, there we go.
It has been a historic victory
for a man who's
wanted the job so long.
He's an extremely divisive
and controversial figure,
but he's also made a
career of doing things
that people have told
him were impossible.
He was told it would be
impossible to turn London blue.
And then he won
the mayoralty, twice.
Then he was, of course told, "Oh,
you can't win the EU referendum."
And then as its Brexit's
main cheerleader he did.
And then told you could never
turn places like Bishop Auckland
or Darlington or
Warrington blue.
And then look at what
has happened tonight.
The election result was
absolutely wonderful.
There was just
this real sense that
we had a proper mandate.
This wasn't just a mandate
from the Conservative Party.
This was a mandate
from the people.
He won the leadership because
he wanted to be Prime Minister.
He won the election because
he wanted to prove he could.
And after that
..I'm not sure what
he really wanted to do.
PRESS SHOU
It was incredibly exciting.
There wasn't a cloud
on the political horizon.
You know, we had a big majority,
we could get Brexit done.
We were We had five years
to sort out all sorts of problems.
It was going to be great.
And then it wasn't.
This programme
contains strong language
It gets lonely at the top,
especially when you're
always putting on an act.
There's a lot of
brilliance in him,
and people admire him for it.
And when he spoke to you,
he had a way of making
you feel like you were
the most important
thing in his life.
But the man behind
the curtain, like,
you know, any
great Wizard of Oz,
you know, reveals this is a
man that's extremely haunted by
a lot of skeletons
from his past.
APPLAUSE
Good afternoon.
I have just been to see
Her Majesty the Queen
who has invited me
to form a government,
and I have accepted.
CHANTING: We want
Boris, we want Boris!
Boris Johnson is
now Prime Minister,
a world leader.
But he has problems
to contend with.
SHOUTING
We just wanted to restore
trust in our democracy,
and we're going to fulfil the
repeated promises of parliament
to the people,
and come out of the
EU on October the 31st.
No ifs or buts.
This government will work
flat out to give this country
the leadership it deserves.
And that work begins now.
Thank you very much.
I remember going
in with Carrie on
the day he went into Number 10.
I was with her as we
stood outside the door,
clapping him in as he arrived.
There had been no
previous Prime Minister
who hadn't come into
Number 10 with his wife.
So to actually come into
Number 10 with a girlfriend is
Was breaking, you know,
it was totally new ground.
So it was a concern as to whether
that would work against him.
But he was determined
when he arrived in Number 10
he would be able
to take control.
Within hours of coming
to power, in a bold move,
Boris forces out an unprecedented
number of the cabinet.
Dispensing with
rivals and critics,
he quickly assembles
loyalists and Brexiteers,
even making space for the man
who betrayed him, Michael Gove.
Right. Morning, everybody.
And, uh, it is wonderful
to see this new team
assembled here, and reflecting,
I think, the depth and breadth of
talent in our extraordinary party.
Boris chooses Matt
Hancock for Health Secretary.
Cabinet with Boris was
completely different to cabinet
with Theresa May,
as you can imagine.
And I think in
his first cabinet,
he started by saying,
"Right, we've got an hour,
"so let's try and
wrap this one up."
Fellow Etonian Jacob Rees-Mogg
becomes his new Leader
of the House of Commons.
I've nailed my
colours very firmly to
the Boris Johnson mast, and
I'm very glad that I've done so.
I think it was the
right thing to do
and he is an exceptional leader.
He promotes Gavin Williamson
to Secretary for Education.
He was asking me who
does he make Chancellor?
And I said to him,
"Make the person Chancellor
who ideally you've got
"a good relationship with,
who's ideally a friend."
And he was like, "Well, I don't
have that many friends in politics."
Yep.
Yeah. He told me he wanted
to have me in his team.
As Chancellor I was
living in Downing Street
and it meant that you'd
see more of each other
especially in informal settings.
You'd literally bump
into each other,
especially at weekends.
I remember my daughter,
at the time she would
have been about ten.
One Saturday morning she
took the dog out into the garden
and, uh, comes back up
and very sort of
matter-of-factly then said,
"Oh, Dad, I just ran
into Boris in the garden,
"he was in his boxers
again. And he's with Dylan,
"his dog, and he said, 'Oh,
uh, are you around later today?'
"and he wants to
see you about 12.
"What do you want me to tell him?"
And so, you know, that was what life
was like in Downing Street.
In amongst the Brexiteers,
Boris also appoints his younger
brother Jo, a staunch remainer.
Look, I mean, in the campaign
there were undoubtedly
promises made that have
shown to be undeliverable.
Is that an elegant way of
saying that we were lied to?
Well, look, it was
a false prospectus.
It was a fantasy set of promises
that have been shown up
for what they were.
And with just three
months to deliver Brexit,
there's one thing standing
in his way - Parliament.
It was a terrible time.
There seemed to be
a sort of rigor mortis had
taken over in Westminster.
We're going round
and round in circles.
And British politics was kind
of locked in a debilitating limbo.
We had defeated the
government 40 times
on various aspects of Brexit.
Order. Statement,
the Prime Minister.
CHANTING
Mr Speaker, with permission, I
shall make a statement on the mission
of this new
Conservative government.
Parliamentary
system plays into this
Oxford Union nonsense,
which is about you
just throw abuse around.
You try to belittle
your opponent,
you try to mock them.
Jeremy Corbyn!
Thank you. Thank
you, Mr Speaker.
If the Prime Minister
continues to pursue
a reckless no deal,
does he accept that he
would be directly flouting
the expressed will
of this parliament?
He speaks about trust in
our democracy, Mr Speaker,
and I have to say, a
most extraordinary thing
has just happened today. Did anybody
notice what happened today? We know.
Did anybody notice the terrible
metamorphosis that took place?
Like the final scene of
Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
At last, at last this
long-standing Eurosceptic,
the Right Honourable
gentleman, has been captured.
He has been jugulated,
he has been reprogrammed
by his honourable friends,
he has been turned
now into a remainer!
JEERING
He wants He wants
He has turned Labour
into the party that
I would like to look inside
Boris Johnson's head
and find what's there.
Because I think there
is a very intelligent,
calculating individual
there who lives in
a persona which is the opposite.
A Right Honourable gentleman
which has been paid by
press TV
..who repeatedly sides with
the mullahs of Tehran
rather than our friends in
the United States over
what is happening in
the Persian Gulf. How incredible
that we should even think
of entrusting that gentleman
with the stewardship
of this country's security.
Sir Ian Blackford. Hear!
Try to take Scotland,
try to take the
United Kingdom out of
the European Union
on a no deal basis,
Parliament will stop
this madness in its tracks.
Parliament was terrible. I mean,
there's no other
word to describe it.
They were sabotaging
any negotiations
with Europe if they could.
Everything was a fight.
I think it made him realise
that getting Brexit through
was going to be a
very, very difficult battle.
So something had to give.
Boris begins hatching
his own plan for dealing
with parliament,
but it's not the only
problem he's contending with.
He's negotiating a
divorce from Marina,
his second wife
and the mother of
four of his children.
And a scandal from his
past is about to break.
CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICK
Oh, that's his Mrs.
That's his wife,
yeah. His wife. Yeah.
July 2018, Boris's second
wife Marina is moving out.
It follows the
revelation of an affair
with his colleague
Carrie Symonds.
This isn't the first time
Boris has been unfaithful.
His relationship with women
is a complex one, beginning
with his first serious girlfriend
when he was a student.
I first met his beautiful
and delightful girlfriend,
Allegra Mostyn-Owen.
She'd been on the cover
of the Tatler magazine,
photographed by David Bailey.
Allegra said to me,
"Will you meet my boyfriend?
"He wants to get
into journalism."
I thought he was very
bright, very energetic,
not arrogant. Very
good company, actually.
I went to their wedding.
It was beautifully done.
Allegra wanted Boris to wear
a ring and Boris didn't want to.
And he managed to lose
the ring within about two hours
of their getting married.
Boris was 23 when
he married Allegra.
Like his parents before
him, the pair met at university.
Yes, he did tell Allegra
that she reminded him
of his mother. I mean, that's
obviously a very serious compliment.
I think he really wanted the
approval of liberal-minded,
particularly women, and was pained
if they thought he was a monster.
For example, he
was very, very stricken
when his first
marriage broke down.
He'd been very
inconsiderate in his behaviour,
but he still didn't
want it to breakdown.
Um, he's very needy, actually.
He doesn't like being alone,
and he hasn't very
often been alone.
Um, he can't bear it.
12 days after his divorce
from Allegra is finalised,
Boris marries Marina, who
is eight months pregnant.
So I think she was undoubtedly
a stabilising influence.
She was very, very good
at telling him when his
behaviour was intolerable
or when what he was doing
was intolerable. I mean,
she chucked him
out from time to time,
but she didn't sort of
hurl him into outer space.
He sort of moved to a room
down the road or something,
or go and stay with friends.
So there was a way
back on several occasions.
Seven years into his marriage,
and just after the
birth of his fourth child,
Boris becomes editor of
The Spectator magazine
and starts a relationship
with a colleague.
Uh, he was a very loyal person,
and I think that means
a lot in a relationship.
There was this solid
foundation of trust
and it got to the point
where I felt I could tell
Boris almost anything,
which was very nice,
because that
doesn't often happen.
You really felt like
he was protecting you.
He liked to see himself
as a sort of knight
from Camelot, um,
which wasn't always true, but it
was nice that he wanted to see
himself that way.
But I noticed that he was somebody
who doesn't like arguments.
Because arguing means that
the other person
might dislike him.
And whenever I
used to get angry,
I could see him
looking terrified,
so everything would
sort of be bottled up
and I wouldn't
say it would fester,
but it wasn't that healthy.
And he sort of
lacked moral courage,
and that was why
he would tell lies.
So he'd promise people things
that you knew that he never meant
to keep. And it wasn't
because he wanted to hurt
them or disappoint them.
He just wanted to please
them at that given moment.
And then he'd think, "Oh, my
God, how am I going to get out of it?"
SIRENS BLARE
Summer 2019.
Boris came to power promising
that he would get Brexit done.
But he needs his plan to
be approved by Parliament.
And so far they
have blocked him.
Lack of self-confidence
is never something that
I'd imagine would
have been written in any
of Boris's school report.
He believes in
himself in a way that,
you know, I've never
really seen in anyone else.
And it's that confidence,
it's that bravado,
it's that belief that
carries him so well.
You know, he's
willing to take risks.
He's willing to break
the mould, because Boris,
I believe, always
believes in Boris.
One month into his premiership
and Boris decides to do
something extraordinary -
shut Parliament down.
According to an old British law,
Parliament can be put into
recess if it's at the end of
a parliamentary session in
a process called prorogation.
That was like declaring
war on Parliament.
I mean, I don't think it's
ever been done before.
Not in these circumstances. I
mean, you prorogue Parliament at
the end of its parliamentary
time. But not to do it like that.
Boris's plan is that
during this recess
with Parliament
unable to challenge him,
he will be able to push through
Brexit however he wishes.
But to prorogue parliament,
he first needs permission
from Her Majesty the Queen.
Whilst Boris stays
in Westminster,
he sends his ally Jacob Rees-Mogg
on a secret mission to Balmoral.
But before Rees-Mogg
has taken off,
news of his mission has spread.
NEWS REEL: The former
Prime Minister Sir John Major
has said he would go to court
to stop Parliament being
suspended over Brexit.
People feel like it would be
extremely undemocratic to suspend
MPs from sitting, to avoid
them from expressing
a view that's opposing
to the Prime Minister.
The last time this was
done, wasn't there a civil war?
I'm thinking this is not quite
a secret as was intended.
As soon as I get to Heathrow,
people start asking
me for selfies.
We were meant to be going
as incognito as possible.
As we're getting off the plane,
we are on a telephone
call for a cabinet meeting
to approve the prorogation,
which was meant to be done
later and in a more calm sense.
But it was done literally as
we were walking off the plane.
Then we have this wonderful
trip to Balmoral in a charabanc
that's kindly sent by
the royal household
..with the late Queen's hairdresser,
who is absolutely brilliant.
So we had a very jolly journey
with him telling us stories.
And then we're taken
in to see the Queen
..joined by one of her corgis,
a very elderly and
I think deaf corgi.
And Her Majesty thought it was
not suitable for the corgi to remain.
So the Queen was trying
to shuffle at this deaf corgi
that was very reluctant to go.
And we got down to the
business of the prorogation.
BIG BEN BONGS
NEWS REEL: Boris Johnson
has successfully sought
to suspend Parliament in a bid
to prevent MPs
from thwarting Brexit.
A development, which only
four days ago, was described by
Downing Street
as entirely false.
Today the Prime
Minister basically said,
"Let's take Parliament out
of the equation so we can,
"you know, get
on with this thing."
He's acting like some
kind of tin pot dictator.
And if MPs don't stop it,
then it is no exaggeration,
it is not hyperbole to say
this is the day any semblance
of UK parliamentary
democracy absolutely dies.
Boris Johnson wants to
write himself into history,
but the methods he'll pursue
to do that could make
or break him, too.
CHANTING: Stop
the coup, stop the coup!
Within hours, the public take to
the streets accusing Boris
of undermining democracy.
People might say this was
an undemocratic move?
I'd say they wouldn't know
what they were talking about.
It's normal functioning
of our constitution.
It was this sort of
arrogant confidence
of these people that sort
of get away with things.
Demonstrations are
taking place everywhere
because people are angered
and outraged at
what is happening.
Think on, Boris. It's not
on, we're not having it,
we're not doing it!
CHANTING: Save our
democracy! Stop the coup!
While protests
continue in London,
Boris heads north
to face the public.
Thank you very much, Jake.
Well, good morning, everybody.
It's great to be
here in Rotherham
in the Magna Centre,
which is, of course,
the plural of Magnum,
which, as everybody knows,
is the Latin for ice cream.
Why are you not with them
in parliament sorting out
the mess that you have created?
Would you mind? I'm very happy.
I'm very happy to keen to see
Why don't you sort it out, Boris?
Why don't you sort it out?
Nice to meet you.
Please leave my
town. I will very soon.
You should be in Brussels
negotiating. Yes, we
have been negotiating.
You are not. You are
in Morley in Leeds.
While Boris is being
accosted in Leeds,
news breaks closer to home.
JOURNALISTS: Hello.
Mr Johnson, Mr Johnson.
His own brother
has quit the cabinet.
Can you tell us when
you're planning to resign?
I haven't got any
further comment
to say other than it's been an
honour to be MP for Orpington
and a minister under
three governments.
But it's time to move on
and I've got to get to work.
Sorry, I beg your pardon.
Are you completely at odds
with your brother, Mr Johnson?
Right. See you, folks.
How can I, or any rational
voter, trust Boris to act in
a national interest if
his own brother can't?
Uh, I'm sure you've seen in the
news Jo Johnson resigned as an MP
and minister saying he was
torn between family loyalty
and the national interest.
I've already made some
comments. Thank you very much.
I remember speaking to
Boris on the day Jo resigned,
and I often thought
the extraordinary thing
is that Jo did that without
telling Boris. Cos he's
I phoned him and said, "You
know, what does it mean?"
He said, "Well, I don't
know. He didn't even tell me."
I think he was
pretty shaken by it.
Mr Johnson, you said you
would unite our country.
If your own brother
doesn't trust you to act in
the national interest,
why should all of we?
Well, Jo doesn't agree with
me about the European Union
because it's an issue
that obviously divides
families and divides everybody.
But I think what Jo
would agree is that we
need to get on and
sort this thing out.
If your own brother has
lost faith in your plan,
surely you'll have to
be the next member of
the Johnson family to resign?
Well, uh
Are you all right?
Oh, that's all right.
I'm so, so sorry. OK, I think
that's a That is a signal for me
actively to wind up. Thank you.
It's quite hurtful, really.
I mean, it's quite painful
to know that even your own
brother is not supporting you.
Um, and he was very
isolated in this battle.
No, I was never worried about
him. I mean, he's very robust,
but you could tell
it was taking a toll.
I mean, everything in
every direction was difficult.
While he may have dealt
with parliament for now,
this is just one of a number
of plates he has spinning.
In his private life
he is still negotiating
a divorce from his wife Marina.
And the press is delving into
a previous relationship
when Boris was mayor.
I established a source who had
a huge hard drive
of emails between this young
spunky American graduate by
the name of Jennifer Arcuri,
and then occupant of
City Hall Boris Johnson.
You know, our interest in the
story, you know, it wasn't prurient,
it wasn't just about whether
they were an item sexually.
I mean, it was - did this or did it
not involve kind of improper conduct
for a person in elected office?
And his status as mayor was
at the heart of their relationship
and what he stood to offer her.
Thank you very much, everybody,
for coming along today. I hope
you are having a productive session.
And Jennifer's now going to
instruct. We've now got to go over
and talk to California.
Is that right?
Are you ready to hang? I'm ready to
hang. I'm ready to hang out, yeah, I am.
Yeah! Look at that,
Boris is hanging out!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
He's not the womaniser
people think he is.
They think because
he's got all these women
and all these
escapades, really, it's
..it's an emotional
insecurity, this man.
Now, that doesn't mean
that he didn't have
..you know, affairs or
flings with other people.
I did. So, I mean,
I was still dating.
I was 26!
..an export of London
Boris was Mayor of London
when he first met Jennifer,
a rising tech star.
And she asked him to
speak at her business's event.
He was like, MIMICS BORIS: "Er, Jennifer,
I'm going to lay this all out on the table.
II want to date you."
I said, "Oh, no, see, I'm way too
much for you. I'm high maintenance."
And he was like, "What?
Like handbags and shit?"
You know, he'd just seen,
and he had, like, a little laugh,
and I thought, "No, I
am, I'm far too much work.
This is gonna be a disaster."
And he was like, and he starts
laughing. He's like, "I like you.
I like you a lot, a lot, a lot."
And he's like, "And I can't
stop thinking about you."
One of the things I noticed
..whether it was
pressure, stress, paranoia,
therethere just
seemed to be times
when he became
very emotionally needy.
And that was when you
saw a lot of recklessness
and kind of
Mm.
..toxic behaviour.
You know, this, I don't know,
maybe the obsession
with women or, you know,
one of his friends from
childhood called it "mommy issues"
when he was
explaining to me his,
his emotional need to
be validated by women,
er, and how much that was
a big part of who he was.
It made me concerned
with how close
one could get to this man,
er, without getting burned.
I started to hear rumours
of how he had had an
affair with another woman
and had a child with her
outside of his marriage.
And he looks at me and
he says something like,
AS BORIS: "Now,
Jennifer, I like you a lot,
and I love my family
and I love my children."
He's like, "But I, you must
promise me one thing."
He's like, "You
mustn't read the news.
You mustn't read them.
Promise me you won't."
And I said, "Well,
a girl's got to ask."
AS BORIS: "And I will, I will
always be honest with you, always,
but you must never
read the paper.
You know, you have questions,
you come to me and me alone."
He said to me one time, MIMICS
BORIS: "Jennifer, I want to be very clear,
all jokes aside,
no bullshit." It
Very seriously, he's like,
"I, I, I care about you a lot,
and I never, ever
want to hurt you."
September 2019
..and Boris is in New York
meeting world leaders for a
climate summit to the United Nations.
He is just two months
into his premiership,
which has been continuously
engulfed in controversy.
But things are
about to get worse.
The Arcuri story is breaking.
BBC NEWS THEME TUNE
More scrutiny for the Prime Minister
over links to a US businesswoman.
Now, the police
watchdog is involved.
I, I've got to ask you about the allegations
against the Prime Minister today.
Have you sought reassurances
that this was not a relationship
that needed to be declared?
She's one of the most
talked about women
at the heart of a
political scandal
involving sex, money,
and foreign trips.
Did you misuse public funds?
Everything that I did was done in
complete conformity with the rules.
What was the nature of your
relationship with Jennifer Arcuri?
Were you friends or
was it something else? I
I worked incredibly hard as
Mayor of London to promote our city
And I am very happy with the
result. Are you still in touch with her?
I was very upset
about the way they
portrayed me in the press.
I left that man years ago.
I was happily moved on.
What was your relationship with
Jennifer Arcuri, Prime Minister?
Do you have an
interest to declare?
It was disgusting the
way we were treated,
you know, just the way,
jumping out of trees,
following us in the car.
I had to lay in the back
seat not to be harassed.
They stand outside my
daughter's school on school runs,
take pictures across
the the street.
I mean, it was
just so intrusive.
With press interest growing
and unsure how to respond,
Jennifer tries to reach
out to Boris for help.
II just thought, "OK,
let's, let's be logical.
I'll, I'll just send
him a text."
You know, "we
should probably talk."
And that's when II noticed
I, you know, I had been blocked.
And I thought that
was very strange.
He doesn't do things like that.
That's not who he is.
And then I got through and
he said, "Yes, hello," and I
And I said, "What, what's going
on? Why did you block me?"
And the phone was taken
GURGLES
..you know, and then you
hear this, "what do you want?"
"Who are you talking to?"
And somebody
clearly mocking me,
pretending to be
some Chinese tourist.
"Hello!" You know,
just really obnoxious.
There's no reason why
two adults couldn't speak,
especially when the
stakes are this high.
You know, it uprooted
everything in my family.
And to not be able to
speak to him about that?
What a wimp.
What a spineless coward.
And I hate saying that
because I cared a
great deal about the man,
and I know he cared about me,
But that's cowardice.
Call it what it is.
And women, if
men do that to you,
that is a get-the-hell-out-of-here-now
kind of trait.
As the story continues
making waves,
just two days later,
Boris is again under scrutiny.
This time over prorogation.
Boris maintains his
actions were legitimate
BOOING
..and any challenge is a
move to undermine Brexit.
But a private
citizen, Gina Miller,
is taking him to
the Supreme Court
to question whether
he acted lawfully.
Respect democracy Miller!
Respect democracy!
SHOUTING
To the gallows!
Respect the referendum, Miller!
Go fucking hang yourself!
To the gallows!
Traitor, traitor!
Every day, Boris Johnson
were telling people like this
that I was stealing
their Brexit.
That I was going against
the will of the people,
against their will.
And he was fuelling the
anger that they were fueler,
feeling towards me.
Go to hell!
Um
..it was unbelievable.
This is one of the biggest
constitutional cases
for 200 years.
To take on a government,
to ask the courts,
can parliament, our
entire parliament,
be closed down and bypassed?
Can a Prime Minister do this?
Is he basically
betraying our democracy
and our parliamentary
sovereignty?
All rise.
The Supreme Court will make
an historic judgment later on,
Boris Johnson's
suspension of parliament.
Over 30 million people
watched the proceedings online.
This judgment is the
unanimous judgment
of all 11 justices.
The court is bound
to conclude, therefore,
that the decision to
advise Her Majesty
to prorogue Parliament
was unlawful.
CHEERING
The ruling today speaks volumes.
This Prime Minister must open
the doors of Parliament tomorrow.
SIRENS WAIL
It was all a big game.
You've got somebody in Boris who really doesn't
care of the consequences of what he does.
It's always about winning
and being in power.
Boris is in New York
with Donald Trump
when the verdict comes through.
Well, thank you
very much everyone.
It's great to be with my
friend Boris Johnson,
and just got a position that
he's having a very easy time with.
It's much easier
than he thought.
I was just saying, is
it tougher or easier?
He said, "Well, it's, I
guess what I expected."
I think it's pretty much
what you expected. It is.
And Mr Johnson, uh, the
some of your critics are saying that you
should resign because you misled the Queen
with regard to shutting
Parliament down.
How do you respond to that?
Well, I, as I said earlier
on, thank you very much,
all, as I said earlier on,
uh, let's be absolutely clear.
Uh, we respect the
judiciary in our country.
We respect the, uhthe court.
II disagree profoundly,
uh, with what they had to say.
Mr President, what was your
reaction when you heard the
UK Supreme Court decision?
What was your reaction?
Uh, I had no reaction.
I just asked Boris,
and, you know, to him,
it's another day in the office.
He's a professional.
It's just another
day in the office.
Yeah, well, it's, tomorrow's
another day in Parliament.
That's whatthat's what
he means. LAUGHTER
We're, we're full of
respect, as I say, for the,
the justices of our
Supreme Court.
But, uh, we're going to,
we're going to push on with,
we're going to respect
what the court had to say,
but we're going to get
on and, and deliver Brexit.
I think that's what the
British people want.
In other words, he's been very
nice to the court, please, OK.
Mr President He has total
respect for the court. Yeah, Joe.
Mr President, on a separate
subject, can you explain why?
GINA MILLER: What you've got
in Boris Johnson and Donald Trump
is you had two individuals
who were playing from
exactly the same script,
which was to take their country
to a much more autocratic state,
where they're unanswerable
to the people of the country
and where they're,
through division,
they were gaining power.
Now Boris must return to
Parliament to face the music.
Why does he think he can
treat the Queen and country
withwith such utter contempt?
CHEERING
Even my five-year-old knows
that if you do something wrong,
you have to say sorry.
After yesterday's
ruling, Mr Speaker,
the Prime Minister should
have done the honourable thing
and resigned.
CHEERING
A lot of people in
Parliament were saying,
"My goodness,
the Prime Minister
has lost a case.
This is catastrophic,
this is devastating."
And I said, "No,
it probably isn't.
It is absolutely no
disrespect to the judiciary
to say I think the
court was wrong
to pronounce on
what is essentially
a political question
at a time
Order!
Whilst Boris strategizes
his next move
to push Brexit through,
the questions keep coming.
Some people don't
support your approach.
Even your own brother Jo
walked out of your government
and he said he'd
stand down as an MP
just six weeks after
agreeing to stick by you.
That must have been
really hard for you.
Yes, II, yes,
but I mean, look, we're a
very tight-knit, close-knit family.
And, there may be people
who disagree with that.
But Rachel talked about your
language though, and she said that
my brother using words like "should be hung,
drawn, quartered, tarred and feathered",
I think it's highly
reprehensible.
Did, did you talk to her about
that after she said that to you?
Well, look, I regret
I don't want to go into conversations
between, uh, members of my family,
which is very, very loving But she said it publicly,
that's why I'm asking. ..and tight knit family.
Were you having an
affair with Jennifer Arcuri?
I, I've said what I've had to
say about that matter, and I
I wouldn't ask unless it hadn't become a matter of
public I never comment on that kind of thing.
You want to believe that your
friend can be a great leader,
and you want to believe that
he can handle the pressure.
But if he can't even handle
the confrontation of
his own personal life,
the man can't clean
up his own laundry,
there's no way he's going
to do it for the country.
Uh, everything is done
with complete propriety.
And I may say, I think it is interesting,
it is interesting The reason I ask
I don't want to talk
about your private life,
it's the issue about whether
you misused public money.
That's why I'm asking whether you
were having sexual relations with her.
Well, I can certainly say there was absolutely
no, there was no question of that at all.
PRESS: Are allegations going
to ruin this conference for you?
# I am a passenger
# And I ride and I ride#
Boris needs to get Brexit done
and cement his
place in Parliament.
To do that he needs a clear
majority over the opposition.
So, he makes a decision.
He will announce an election.
It was blazingly obvious that Boris
was just going to keep going, you know,
keep driving forward relentlessly
until he got Brexit done, he had to, right?
If heif he gave up, he would have been
the shortest Prime Minister then in history.
But having faced a wave of
political and personal scandals,
and just three months
into his premiership,
it's the biggest gamble
of his career to date.
Are you ready for
the contest ahead?
CHEERING
Areare you pumped up?
Let's go out there and win!
Win that election,
win for Labour,
and get a Labour government!
# Yield to the power
# We'll be the passenger#
The thing I think that I noticed
was that having
been released finally
from that dreadful, suffocating
cockpit called Westminster for him,
he was back in the one
place that you want him.
You want him on
the public stage.
He's very good with people.
He likes interacting with people
and makes them feel good.
And that's true, I think, whether
he's, he's campaigning politically,
or he is in a social setting,
er, he's the kind of person
you'd sort of want to be around
if you want to have a good time
and have some fun conversation.
# ..all day long#
Yeah, you've definitely got
our vote, we do not like Jeremy.
That's fantastic.
It's time to bring our
divided country together.
CHEERING
It was obviously a
very pressurised time
..but I don't think
he'd be particularly
worrying his head about
details of anything, actually.
And I remember I
phoned him up and he said,
"I'm going to be working.
My hand is going to
be firmly tied to the oar.
I will be pulling
the boat along."
OK.
So, I said, "Well, if your
hand is tied to one oar,
the boat will be
going in circles.
And he said, "Good point."
And he then went
off in ancient Greek
about the effect of a boat going in
circles, which I didn't understand at all.
Oh, how are you?
Nice to see you.
Thanks, so sorry,
thanks for coming.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, nice to see you.
You've been going for 13 hours.
That's nothing, we're, we're hard
You must be exhausted. ..hard as nails.
Steel springs,
that's what we are.
How do you cope? How
do you keep your energy up?
Steel springs. 13-hour day. I don't know,
I think it's genetic, I have a lot of energy.
Fantastic.
And Haribos?
No, I don't. II sometimes
succumb to flapjacks.
He set out the general
narrative of what he wanted
and his style, he would
just keep on saying
the whole issue
is get Brexit done.
And I chatted to him and said, "Well,
you're not going to get Brexit done,
It's not all going to be over
on polling day, you know that."
And he said, "We're
going to get Brexit done.
We're going to get Brexit done."
II mean, at one
level it's clever,
but at the other level
it's totally irresponsible.
He would always
try to portray me
as some kind of evil
force within our society,
which, um, was then
parroted by the papers.
Sunday afternoon I sat
down, and I read the Daily Mail.
Page after page about what an
evil person Jeremy Corbyn was.
Page after page.
This man grows his own
vegetables, this man keeps a cat,
this man, etc, etc.
And so I got to the end
of it, I put the paper down,
I looked at the
cat and I thought
"That Corbyn, God,
he's an evil sod."
It was just
..the demonisation of me.
It was unbelievable.
A very good evening.
For the fourth time in
the space of five years,
the future of the United
Kingdom is uncertain.
And this time with
politics in deadlock,
and Brexit unresolved, the
stakes are higher than ever.
This is a conservative
gain from Labour.
This is in Greater Manchester.
Looking at a seat like that, going
from red to blue, that's astonishing.
Well, I never thought, er,
in all this time that I'd see,
er, Wrexham of all places
turning Conservative.
Boris Johnson, who just a year
ago was on the back benches,
may just have redrawn the map.
Hi, good evening
everybody, good evening.
Boris Johnson has this
extraordinary connection with voters.
People like Boris's
approach to life.
They like his ebullience,
thethe fun of
politics, the interest of it.
CHANTING: Boris,
Boris, Boris, Boris!
We have another
Conservative gain.
The Conservatives taking real
chunks out of the Labour heartland.
Hello, how are you?
Bishop Auckland has
been Labour since 1935.
Well, look, it's
gone Conservative.
Johnson, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel
commonly known as Boris Johnson,
the Conservative
Party candidate,
25,000
CHEERING
Over the past decade,
I've seen politicians
who have not paid the penalty
for getting things wrong,
not paid a political penalty.
One was Donald Trump,
and Boris Johnson.
You know, I think people
knew he was a bit of a chancer,
but for a while it
didn't seem to matter.
The character overcame that.
It is 6:13 in the morning.
The Conservatives have
won the general election,
with a hefty
majority of 80 seats.
That is our current calculation.
The last time the Tories had
a majority anything like this
was when Margaret Thatcher
was re-elected in 1987.
Thanks very much, thanks for coming,
I really appreciate it, thanks very much.
Thank you, thanks for coming.
Thanks for coming. How are you?
My little dog has come
to meet you. Teazel.
Come on, what's the name
of your? Teazel. Teazel.
How are you, meeting
Teazel, there we go.
It has been a historic victory
for a man who's
wanted the job so long.
He's an extremely divisive
and controversial figure,
but he's also made a
career of doing things
that people have told
him were impossible.
He was told it would be
impossible to turn London blue.
And then he won
the mayoralty, twice.
Then he was, of course told, "Oh,
you can't win the EU referendum."
And then as its Brexit's
main cheerleader he did.
And then told you could never
turn places like Bishop Auckland
or Darlington or
Warrington blue.
And then look at what
has happened tonight.
The election result was
absolutely wonderful.
There was just
this real sense that
we had a proper mandate.
This wasn't just a mandate
from the Conservative Party.
This was a mandate
from the people.
He won the leadership because
he wanted to be Prime Minister.
He won the election because
he wanted to prove he could.
And after that
..I'm not sure what
he really wanted to do.
PRESS SHOU
It was incredibly exciting.
There wasn't a cloud
on the political horizon.
You know, we had a big majority,
we could get Brexit done.
We were We had five years
to sort out all sorts of problems.
It was going to be great.
And then it wasn't.