David Cameron: ‘Boris has always been able to get away with things’
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Former prime minister David Cameron has said that Boris Johnson can often get away with things that others cannot, following a string of restriction-breaking and Tory sleaze allegations.
The pair have moved in similar circles for some time, first meeting at the Bullingdon Club as young men, a private all-male dining club for Oxford University students.
Cameron, who was Conservative leader from 2010 to 2016, also suggested that the current prime minister may have hired his own band of professional photographers in a bid to “bypass the media”.
“Boris has always been able to get away with things that mere mortals can’t seem to,” Cameron told Sky News.
As the UK officially left the European Union at the beginning of 2020, a referendum devised by Cameron, Johnson’s administration used its in-house media team to address the nation instead of an independent, national, broadcaster.
Johnson’s latest announcement of no further Covid-19 restrictions ahead of Christmas had also been distributed by Downing Street, rather than hosting a traditional press conference.
“I think there has been a bit of an arms race in a way,” Cameron said.
“Politicians have tooled up with special advisers and the spin doctors, and the media have tooled up by even more aggressive gotcha interviews to get that magic moment.”
The former prime minister added: “I think we have got to try and have a relationship still distant and confrontational by moments – but understanding that you have got legitimate questions, but we have also got a responsibility to explain what we are doing.
“And can we try and find a bit of space for those things to coexist.”