Johnson insists in memoir he would have 'won again' in July election if still PM

Boris Johnson has insisted he would have won another election if he had not been forced from Downing Street, arguing in his new memoir that he broke no rules with lockdown parties and was the victim of a conspiracy.

- Peter Walker

The former prime minister's book, Unleashed, also reveals that he believed the risk to peace in Northern Ireland from Brexit was exaggerated and was used by opponents "to trap the UK in the EU".

Settling scores with some former colleagues, he calls David Cameron's departure as prime minister after the Brexit vote a "flouncerama" and details his sadness and anger when Michael Gove stood against him to be Tory leader in 2016.

What is likely to be the most controversial part of the book comes near the end, where Johnson details the revelations about lockdown-breaking No 10 parties, one of a string of controversies that led to his being forced from office in July 2022.

Johnson was among more than 100 people fined for breaching restrictions in Downing Street, but in the book he writes: "At the time we believed that these events were in accordance with the rules - and I still think they were."

His only mistakes, he adds, were "grovelling" in response, and allowing a "ridiculous and unfair witch-hunt" a reference to the report on Partygate led by Sue Gray, then a senior civil servant.