Boris Johnson blasted Emmanuel Macron as “Putin’s lickspittle” and a “c***” after the French President criticised Britain’s response to the Ukrainian refugee crisis.
The latest anecdote from Mr Johnson’s time in office once again comes from his former Director of Communications, Guto Harri, who is releasing a weekly series of podcasts with Global.
Mr Harri reveals Boris Johnson found President Macron’s attempts to talk Putin down from his invasion of Ukraine as “nauseating”.
The most lurid revelation is that Boris allegedly told a “small gang of us” that he was going to have to “punch [Macron’s] lights out”.
After seeing a Guardian front page carrying criticism from Macron over Britain’s failure to offer enough support for Ukrainian refugees, Boris launched into a furious tirade: “He’s a four-letter word that begins with C, he’s a weirdo, he’s Putin’s lickspittle!”
“We need to go studs up on this one. We need an orgy of frog bashing.
“I’m going to have to punch his lights out.”
However just weeks later when the pair met for the G7, Mr Harri says the two leaders had “patched it up” and “got on really well”, going for a whiskey together.
This week’s podcast from Mr Harri also focuses on the “extraordinary bond” between Boris Johnson and President Zelensky, with the pair sharing “dark gallows humour”.
For the first few weeks and months following Putin’s invasion, the two were on first name terms and would speak every day, sometimes even more regularly than that.
“Apart from the detailed discussions about how we were helping, a lot of which was about very specific military hardware, the two of them had this extraordinary bond. And dare I mention it, this kind of really dark gallows humour that was obviously a coping mechanism.”
After Britain had supplied Ukraine with anti-tank N-LAW missiles, President Zelensky told Boris Johnson: “Every time we fire them, we think of a love story.”
He then began singing a parody of the Beatles, “All you need is N-Love”, something Mr Harri describes as “bonkers” to have listened in on.
Later on, Boris Johnson asked Zelensky: “Are you still singing Beatles songs when you attack the Russians?”
The Ukrainian president replied: “No, no, no. Now we just say God Save the Queen”.
Towards the end of his time in power, as Tory MPs moved against him, Boris’s greatest fear was that without him in Downing Street, the commitment of the UK and NATO could be diluted – a fear, according to Guto Harri, shared by President Zelensky.
In one of the last phone calls between the pair before Mr Johnson resigned, President Zelensky said: “We’re so sad, you resigned. We’re all disappointed, Boris. I’m personally disappointed. Everybody loves you in Ukraine. It’s true”.
Boris interrupted: “No, you’re a hero. Everybody loves you in my country, Volodymyr”.
For Boris, according to his former Communications Director, “this is the best and most sincere tribute that he could ever hope for”.
Mr Harri’s podcast is available on Global, with a new episode every Thursday.
Towards the end of his time in power, as Tory MPs moved against him, Boris’s greatest fear was that without him in Downing Street, the commitment of the UK and NATO could be diluted – a fear, according to Guto Harri, shared by President Zelensky.
In one of the last phone calls between the pair before Mr Johnson resigned, President Zelensky said: “We’re so sad, you resigned. We’re all disappointed, Boris. I’m personally disappointed. Everybody loves you in Ukraine. It’s true”.
Boris interrupted: “No, you’re a hero. Everybody loves you in my country, Volodymyr”.
For Boris, according to his former Communications Director, “this is the best and most sincere tribute that he could ever hope for”.
Mr Harri’s podcast is available on Global, with a new episode every Thursday.