The real Boris Johnson: politician or journalist?

The Tory leadership hopeful has long attempted to hold down careers in both politics and journalism. As he hopes to take over as prime minister, his biographers Sonia Purnell and Andrew Gimson look at what his career in newspapers says about his character and abilities for the top job in UK politics. Plus: Sabrina Siddiqui on the widespread condemnation of Donald Trump’s racist remarks about four congresswomen

Before entering politics, Boris Johnson made his name first as a reporter and then a columnist rising to fame with the Daily Telegraph and then the Spectator. But it was not always a smooth ascent: he was sacked from the Times as a graduate trainee for making up a quote and as a Brussels correspondent generating dozens of controversial stories that poked fun at the EU institutions and refashioned Euroscepticism in the UK years before the Brexit vote.

But one particular incident stands out: so-called ‘Guppygate’. In 1990, Johnson was secretly recorded agreeing to provide the address of the News of the World reporter Stuart Collier to his friend Darius Guppy, who wanted to arrange for the journalist to have his ribs cracked as revenge for investigating his activities. Collier has told the Guardian he wants a full apology from Johnson.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Ln29Wz