‘Frivolous to his very core’: Boris Johnson was the worst prime minister in history

It would be a betrayal of everything he puports to stand for if Rishi Sunak did not bury the rotten Johnson regime and its flatulent rhetoric for ever, writes Anthony Seldon

Never since Walpole has a prime minister been so humiliated. Parliament triumphed. The chief executive was held to account and held responsible by the legislature (Getty)

Shock horror. Prime ministers have been liars throughout history! The first, and still the longest-serving example, Robert Walpole, set the tone, bribing indiscriminately and treating truth as if it was a tool, not an absolute.

But that was the 18th century. They did things differently. Since then, prime ministers have at least tried to be honest, and moral, and to take the job of being the most senior politician in the country seriously. Until Boris Johnson took office in 2019.

Britain has certainly had its liars and distorters of the truth since Walpole was in Downing Street. David Lloyd George, in the early 20th century, was never unduly troubled by truth or morality. Anthony Eden was, but even he dissembled over British policy in the Suez crisis of 1956, as many believe Tony Blair did over the imminence of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein in the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003.