No wonder deceit is dragging Boris Johnson under – he’s not even a good liar | Simon Jenkins

The prime minister is belatedly learning that a few jokes cannot distract from a catalogue of ego-driven mendacity

He lied. He clearly lied. But so what? As Boris Johnson hangs on by his fingertips, we wait to see who will stamp on them. The answer is presumably Sue Gray, to whose final mercies he has desperately handed his fate. Surely nothing she says can rescue him. At question is not his guilt, only his punishment.

Johnson can plead that he was “advised” that office parties were within the rul...