(EXCLUSIVE) Boris Johnson: "They Were Looking at Engineering The Virus" And The Government Tried To Bribe Me!

Boris Johnson (0:00)

Do you really think I was deliberately partying and breaking the rules?

Steven Bartlett (0:03)

It's all about leading by example, isn't it?

Boris Johnson (0:05)

Sorry, but to say it was a party is a complete travesty.

Steven Bartlett (0:08)

Seeing that photo when one of my friends can go to their grandmother's funeral is the most enraging thing. I think all gatherings should have been banned at number 10 Because I think-

Boris Johnson (0:17)

What do you mean gatherings?

Steven Bartlett (0:18)

Gatherings with alcohol and music and cake. You should never have allowed that to happen.

Boris Johnson (0:24)

Right. I apologize for that. Boris Johnson, the former Prime Minister of the UK, whose reign included Brexit, Covid and the Ukraine War.

Steven Bartlett (0:31)

He's one of the world's most famous politicians. On this point of Brexit, how did David Cameron react when you said you're going to vote Leave?

Boris Johnson (0:38)

He said, if you come out and support Leave, I will f*** you up forever. But if you support Remain, you can have a top five job in the cabinet.

Steven Bartlett (0:45)

But is that not a bit corrupt? And is that how the jobs are dished out in the government at the moment?

Boris Johnson (0:49)

Look, I'm sad to say that it's probably been the way politics has been since the dawn of time.

Steven Bartlett (0:53)

And then this letter you wrote about the decision to leave or stay within the EU, which was unpublished. You seemed torn. So do you regret Brexit? Well, the next big thing was the pandemic.

Boris Johnson (1:05)

There was a lot of stuff we didn't know. And I think it almost certainly was a lab accident. They were looking at engineering viruses and ways that they could manipulate it. Sadly, something went wrong.

Steven Bartlett (1:15)

When you talk about lockdowns, you refer to them as bonkers, which is strange hearing it from the guy that put the rules in place.

Boris Johnson (1:21)

Well, did the benefits of lockdown outweigh the very, very severe damage done to kids?

Steven Bartlett (1:28)

What do you think the answer to that question is?

Boris Johnson (1:29)

Honestly, I think...

Steven Bartlett (1:30)

Boris, I just wanted to ask a few more things. Trump or Kamala, who's the best for international relations? How many kids do you have? Charlotte Owen. You're not related, Terry. And then you have quite a distinct persona. People describe you as being a buffoon. When I first saw you, I thought you were a parody from Beau Selecter. Is it calculated?

Boris Johnson (1:45)

Well, to get people's interest in politics, you've got to sugar the pill.

Steven Bartlett (1:48)

But also, your mother said you had certain mechanisms to cope with pain. Because your mother is sent to a psychiatric facility when you were 10 I read there was physical violence in the house. And then at 14, your parents get divorced.

Boris Johnson (2:00)

Yes, we were in Sunset. My father told us. And I was, look, I was cross and said, you know, so why did you have us then? Steve.

Steven Bartlett (2:28)

What do I need to understand about your earliest years to understand the man that you are today?

Boris Johnson (2:34)

I think the key thing is my wonderful, happy, very kind of peregrinating childhood in the company of my siblings. The key fact was that after 18 months of existence, my sister Rachel was born. And ever after, it was just a constant struggle to keep the pretense of primacy with my siblings. But I think it is probably true to say that healthy, incessant sibling interaction, competition, whatever you want to call it, rivalry, definitely played a part in my formation. And we used to make fun of it, too. We used to think it was rather pathetic.

We all knew that there was a culture of trying to win. To be to say, oh, a little baby wants to win. And so we were kind of, we competed, but we also deprecated the competition.

Steven Bartlett (3:53)

At that age, say before the age of 10, how does that manifest in terms of a feeling? Because you can in hindsight say, okay, I was competitive, but how did it feel? You know, because you...

Boris Johnson (4:04)

It felt like fun.

Steven Bartlett (4:05)

But this idea that Rachel came along and then you were vying for attention and competition with her, how does that feel when you're under the age of 10? Because your father, at least, was very, very busy as a man. So I'm presuming he wasn't necessarily so present. I was reading that you moved house 32 times in 14 years. Yeah, but that...