Lee Jasper: Surviving Boris Johnson

Former London Mayor advisor reflects on the vicious attacks, how he was exonerated, and the irony of the Prime Minister being undone by lies.

SURVIVOR: Lee Jasper during his time as Mayoral advisor for policing and equality (Pic: In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images)

HE’S GONE. Well, sort of. I’ve written extensively on Boris’s unprincipled character and lack of ethics and moral backbone over the last 14 years.

My family, friends and close colleagues were targeted, mauled and mud raked by him, his Mayoral team, and the Evening Standard in 2007/8 London elections.

I, and many innocent people, were all attacked by Boris’s Rottweiler rat pack team at the Standard, led by journalist Andrew Gilligan.

Andrew went on, (and no surprise here), to become the first Mayoral adviser to Boris and then an adviser to the PM. Rich reward indeed for helping Boris secure his slenderest of victories, just 60,000 votes 2008 election victory over Ken Livingstone.

Since then, many have discounted my public criticism of Boris as being personally motivated. And why wouldn’t they? The obvious accusation was of course ‘it’s all sour grapes’.

PARTYGATE: Boris Johnson resigns outside Downing Street last week (Pic: Carl Court/Getty Images)

The fact is I saw the man’s character close and personal. His talents were as apparent as his flaws.

At the time, I warned that if Boris’s attack on me were to succeed, then the consequences for all of us would be profound – and profound they’ve been.

Windrush, deportations, police racism and misogynoir, Covid-19 death rates, and massive rises in Black adult and youth unemployment, not to mention the polarizing and devesting effects of Brexit and the cost-of-living crisis.

Add to these issues the plethora of legislations that will have a devastating effect on our community, not least the plan to abandon the European Convention on Human Rights.

Malicious

Many dismissed my many public criticisms of Boris as desperate hyperbole of a defeated man, but history has proven I was right. After 12 years of Tory government with Boris as first Mayor and then PM, the undeniable fact remains that British Black people are immeasurably worse today than at any time in British post-war history. 

This period of my life was awful. Having survived his malicious campaign to discredit and destroy my family, I find it laughable (laughs in a slightly psychotic deranged way with a twitching left eye) that all of the many malicious and false allegations he made against me have now come to pass for him.

Psychological projection is a hell of a thing, but thanks God, Karma keeps receipts.

I’ve always understood that people were easily blinded by his undoubted erudite wit, charm and wealth. It would be churlish to say otherwise. Having met him, I can personally attest he is likeable, funny, and a great dinner party guest or TV personality, but not someone you’d want running the country.

Boris has a passion for Homer and the Greek classics, which is deeply ironic given how things have played out during his incredibly short tenure as PM and have literally turned into a Greek tragedy for him and the nation.

Like Icarus, his monstrous ego allowed him to think he could fly near the Sun. Like Icarus, his wings are now smoking, scorched and tinged, and Boris, the Sun Boy King, has now plummeted back to earth in a death spiraling, royally smoked on a bonfire of his own vanity.

The final ironic twist in this sorry tale is just like his acclaimed political hero Churchill a career once showered with the glittering prizes of ascendancy, unrivalled power, and apparent inevitable destiny has turned into a dystopian nightmare.

I must ashamedly admit to watching his demise with a soupçon of schadenfreude. But what I’m most grateful for in a perverse sort of way is the whole experience of Boris’s sustained and brutal attacks, though personally galling, and taxing all around, ultimately made me and my family more robust, not weaker, made me wiser and more resilient.

Others involved at the time were not so fortunate and remain scared or marred by the experience to this day. My only regret about this period of my life was that so many innocent people got injured and hurt.

Today, the big takeaway from my experience is also ironic. As a consequence I now know who I am and who my real friends are.

As for Boris drunk on the cool aid of his own munificence  I have a delicious quote “Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat.”

Comments Form

3 Comments

  1. | DAZZA

    Well if you think Boris was bad. Wait until his replacement. He was aided and abetted by the increasing Far right media both printed and non-printed.

    Reply

  2. | Lisa

    Why did he (or anyone) help Boris get into power in the first place? And if blacks are worse off than before (and indeed most of the working people or poorest in the Country) why even support the Tory Party at all who do nothing for either? He got treated the way his people seem to enjoy treating non-whites and people who are not filthy rich, not that it was deserved but was inevitable, probably.

    Reply

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