Is Boris Johnson getting more like Donald Trump?

Boris Johnson has been accused of drifting “towards a Trumpian style of politics” as he continues to refuse to retract and apologise for the slur he made about Keir Starmer in the House of Commons earlier this month.

Members of the PM’s own party, as well as the opposition, have been calling on Johnson to take back his false claim that the Labour leader failed to prosecute paedophile Jimmy Savile in his role as the director of public prosecutions (DPP).

Starmer called the PM’s comment “a ridiculous slur, peddled by right-wing trolls” and said he was “parroting the conspiracy theories of violent fascists” for political gain.

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A week after Johnson made what the BBC’s Reality Check team described as an “unfounded claim, which has been discredited before”, Starmer was ambushed near parliament by a mob shouting the child sex offender’s name and slurs including “paedo protector”.

Despite this, the PM has not apologised for his inflammatory comments and the situation they put the Labour leader in, with Johnson’s official spokesperson telling Sky News that his words were “capable of being misconstrued”.

Around a dozen Conservative MPs have called on Johnson to apologise for his remarks, including Tobias Ellwood, Conservative MP for Bournemouth East. “Let’s stop this drift towards a Trumpian style of politics from becoming the norm,” Ellwood wrote on Twitter. “We are better than this.”

‘Loudmouthed man-children’

Ever since Johnson became PM in July 2019, comparisons have been made between him and the former US president, who share an “unorthodox” approach to politics and have faced accusations of racism, sexism and homophobia throughout their careers.

Johnson and Donald Trump are both “loudmouthed man-children, with a history of adultery and other scandals, whose professional success is a combination of immense privilege, unscrupulous opportunism and relentless self-promotion”, wrote Dutch political scientist Cas Mudde in The Guardian at the time.

Both have been described as serial liars. In Johnson’s case, these lies have included inventing a quote that led to him being fired as a journalist and campaigning for Brexit using made-up figures including his infamous claim that leaving the EU would free up £350m a week for the NHS.

Trump’s lies – from claiming the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from the Republicans to promising to eliminate the US national debt in eight years – are equally as notorious. Both politicians have a “lofty disdain for anything so trivial as facts”, said Philip Stephens in the Financial Times. “Anything they disagree with is ‘fake news’.”

Although there’s no evidence suggesting Johnson intended to incite the mob of conspiracy theorists who turned on Starmer earlier this month, there’s no denying that his most recent lie was “a distinctly Trumpian act – not only in its execution, but also in its reception in online fever swamps”, said Jon Allsop in The Guardian.

‘Teflon-like immunity to scandal’

As well as a similar disregard for the truth, Johnson has demonstrated in recent weeks that he has an impressive ability to ride out scandals – an ability seemingly matched by Trump.

From being caught boasting that with women he would “Grab them by the pussy” in a tape released during his 2016 election campaign to surviving two impeachment trials, the former US president has “proved virtually immune to scandals”, said Politico’s Ryan Heath.

Johnson has revealed a similar ability to withstand allegations of unethical behaviour throughout “Partygate”, where he has ignored repeated calls from many quarters to resign.

Even now, when he is personally under investigation by the Metropolitan Police over alleged lockdown-breaking parties at No. 10, the PM is still enjoying “Trump’s Teflon-like immunity to scandal”, said Heath.

Optimism v. pessimism

Although comparisons between Johnson and Trump are often made, key differences mean the pair are not the transatlantic twins the media often tries to depict them as. For starters, despite his wealth and immense privilege, Trump has always seen himself as a political outsider, with a chip on his shoulder about “the elite”.

Johnson, on the other hand, is “as pure a product of the London media establishment as you’re likely to meet”, said Allsop, who pointed out that the PM recently appointed Guto Harri as his new communications director – “a former BBC journalist who wasn’t right-wing enough to hold down a job at GB News”.

Johnson also has faith in alliances in a way that isolationist Trump does not. “Look at his government’s support for Nato and its commitment to international action on climate change,” said The Spectator’s political editor James Forsyth in The Times.

The pair also have fundamental differences in terms of their personalities, added Forsyth. Johnson is an optimist, while Trump is a pessimist. Johnson “wants to reform institutions, not destroy them” and he “believes in evolution, not revolution”.

Cause for concern

Johnson has vowed to “reset” his Downing Street operation and restore trust in the government, which has been eroded throughout all the recent scandals.

But his “Trumplike” decision to evoke a conspiracy theory in the House of Commons – whether to damage Starmer’s reputation or merely to distract from “Partygate” – is a cause for concern.

While comparisons between Johnson and Trump are often overblown, the PM’s refusal to apologise for or retract his dangerous slur can’t help but recall his former US counterpart who famously refused to ever say sorry – not even when his words incited the storming of the US Capitol last year.