Boris Johnson's Partygate lies make it hard to believe anything he says – Vladimir McTavish

Boris Johnson at Peppa Pig World, allegedly (Picture: George Bell/SWNS)

The Prime Minister’s supporters in Cabinet and on the back benches are growing ever-more desperate.

Their latest defence is along the lines of a slice of birthday cake is trivial compared to the important matters of government business – such as tackling the pandemic, kick-starting the economy and reacting to an impending war in Europe.

This is doubtless true. However, it now appears that he has also repeatedly lied about one such important matter of business, namely the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan last year.

When UK troops evacuated Kabul in August, former Royal Marine Pen Farthing was airlifted out, along with many hundreds of dogs and cats from his animal sanctuary in the Afghan capital. At the same time, several thousand people were left stranded on the tarmac at the mercy of the Taliban.

In December, Boris Johnson was asked whether he had prioritised the rescue of these animals over the lives of human beings.

He dismissed these claims as being “complete nonsense”. A few weeks later, two emails from the Foreign Office were released to a parliamentary committee, which suggest that the Prime Minister did intervene to get Farthing and his dogs and cats bumped up the queue.

What must have seemed like a good PR exercise is now looking like very bad publicity indeed. We have reached a stage where many people are now assuming that every word uttered by Johnson is not true. In fact, I’m beginning to doubt that he even went to Peppa Pig World.

Meanwhile, tensions are rising all over Europe about the situation in Ukraine. If we are indeed on the brink of the Third World War, I expect property prices in Portobello to go through the roof.

After all, if affairs in Ukraine escalate and get really out of hand – to the extent that there’s a Russian invasion of our country – the nearer you live to a cat and dog home, the better your chances of being airlifted to safety.

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