Explainer: Boris Johnson’s humble address to the Queen?

Boris Johnson is never less than obsequious when referring to the late Queen in his new memoir, Unleashed, but is he really a loyal subject?

Westminster has been gripped by the release of Boris Johnson’s new memoir, Unleashed, with figures from all areas of public life frantically checking the index to see if they are mentioned.
But amid the recriminations, self-justifications and catty asides (Greta Thunberg is described as a “whey-faced teenage Joan of Arc”), he is never less than obsequious when reminiscing about her late Majesty, Elizabeth II.

He recalls that the day after the Queen’s parachute stunt for the Olympic opening ceremony in 2012, she asked the then Mayor of London if the audience had thought it was funny. “‘Ma’am,’ I said, with Disraelian unctuousness, ‘the reviews have been uniformly terrific’” he writes.

He recalls discussing a G7 meeting with her in which President Macron had said it was reasonable to have checks on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland since they were different countries. The Queen, he says, observed that there is a large age gap between the French President and his wife. “‘Yes’, I said ‘he married his teacher,’” Johnson writes. “‘Well’, said the Queen, ‘she didn’t teach him much history.’”

But is he really such a loyal subject? Like everything with Boris Johnson, the answer’s equivocal. He reveals he had known for more than a year before she died that she had bone cancer. Yet the Queen’s determination to continue her public duties – accepting Johnson’s resignation and appointing Liz Truss just two days before her death – makes clear she did not wish that information to be revealed.