Boris Johnson's five bizarre claims in interview with superfan Nadine Dorries

03 February 2023 , 21:30

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Deluded Boris Johnson has claimed the Tories could "absolutely" win the next election despite Rishi Sunak's scandal-hit Tories languishing in the polls.

The shamed former Prime Minister suggested his successor could lead the party to victory as a poll today gave Labour a 24-point lead over the Conservatives.

But in a cosy interview on staunch ally Nadine Dorries's new TalkTV show, Mr Johnson called on Britain to send more tanks to Ukraine - piling pressure on Rishi Sunak.

The remorseless Tory also claimed anyone who believes he knowingly covered up illegal parties at No10 was "out of their mind".

And he made a series of bizarre admissions about how he's filling his time since he was ousted from Downing Street - from learning to paint cows to building a quadbike garage for his kids.

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Boris Johnson's five bizarre claims in interview with superfan Nadine Dorries

Boris Johnson made an appearance on his staunch ally Nadine Dorries' new TV show (James Veysey/TalkTV/REX/Shutterstock)

Mr Johnson is the first guest on the ex-Culture Secretary's Friday night show, which has already earned her a ticking off from Parliament's revolving door watchdog.

Lord Pickles, chair of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), said she had broken the rules by failing to seek advice before taking on the role.

Here are the bizarre claims from his TalkTV appearance.

Nadine Dorries is one of Boris Johnson's most staunch supporters (nadinedorries/Instagram)

People 'out of their mind' if they think he covered up Partygate

Mr Johnson faces being hauled before MPs within weeks to face accusations he misled Parliament over lockdown-busting No10 bashes.

But he struck a bullish note over the Partygate saga which sank his premiership and could also see him ousted from Parliament if he's found to have misled MPs.

Boris Johnson was fined by police over Partygate (PA)

He said: "I hope it's obvious to everybody, that anybody who thinks I was knowingly going to parties that were breaking lockdown rules in No10, and then knowingly covering up parties that were illicit that other people were going to, that’s all strictly for the birds.

"And if anybody thinks like that they’re out of their mind.”

Brexit 'saved lives' by speeding up the vaccine rollout

Mr Johnson also doubled down on his disputed claim that Brexit sped up the UK's vaccine rollout.

He said: "It is literally true that Brexit helped save lives. And people’s eyes bulge a bit when you say that, but it happens to be true… I'm proud of that. I’m proud of all the work that those people did.”

Full Fact has previously rubbished this claim, saying that the UK always had the right to give temporary approval to an unlicensed medicinal product in crises such as a pandemic.

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MHRA boss Dr June Raine confirmed in 2020 that the vaccine was approved under EU law.

Asked if Brexit made the process quicker, she said: “We have been able to authorise the supply of the vaccine using provisions under European law which exist until 1 January."