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Boris Johnson had the most engaging office of any senior politician I have ever met. Tucked at the top of City Hall’s glass bubble, his lair as Mayor of London was lined with books — mostly written by himself — and bits from newspapers — mostly about himself.
It was full of all sorts of stuff, rather than the usual dusty computer, beige sofa and second-rate art from the Government store which most ministers make do with.
Bike helmet in one corner, rucksack in another, probably some old clothes somewhere else, and a model of a Routemaster bus missing its radiator, it felt like the home of some egocentric well-paid TV academic-turned-hack.
It was a real place, a bit impromptu, inhabited and owned by him rather than just worked in. If you created a play about someone like Johnson in the West End, you’d pick props like this.
When I visited, which I did occasionally between 2012 and 2015 as a ministerial adviser, it was never boring. You looked forward to going.
The magic of the man lay in the sense of theatre. He was putting on a show — and he obviously knew it and was eager for it to be enjoyed. It was a sort of seduction, as he peered at you across the room, neck arched, head forward and eyes hooded, a cross between an eagle and an owl.
The other thing I remember is that Johnson only came alive when he was leading a gang in his room. He needed people to riff off. His noisy, prickly performance in last night’s leadership debate showed how he struggles when he’s not the only centre of attention.
That’s not the same as trying to run everything. Meetings with him involved a team — not a few deferential officials, but individuals who actually ran things and competed with each other and tried to manage him. He’d throw phrases out to them to pick up, assert something, chuck us challenge.
A lot of the skill of this team — and some in it were very good — seemed to lie in giving Johnson the sense that he was shaping big issues while keeping him away from the detailed grind of making stuff happen.
If you pretended to be daunted by the thing he had just asked, and pretended to haggle over it, he’d usually settle for more or less whatever it was you wanted to do in the first place — as long as you gave him a sense he was making a difference.
He never once met the rail unions directly as Mayor, for instance — his team made sure of that, even though he spent a lot of time in meetings going on (rightly) about the stranglehold they have over London’s transport. They kept him away because they knew it would go wrong.
And if he becomes prime minister in a bit less than a fortnight, this is how he will want to run Britain. He used his time as Mayor as the basis of a bid to run the country — wiping out in his own mind and everyone else’s his unhappy spell as Foreign Secretary. Did it work — and might it work again?
Even the hardest of Johnson critics, and I am one, couldn’t help fall for the way he’d break through the dull mediocrity of most government life — all those boring announcements about “delivering” things — and give things a bit of fizz. When he talked of London as the greatest city on Earth he really seemed to feel it.
Free wheeling: Johnson rides a Boris Bike — originally a Ken Livingstone idea (PA)
And stuff did happen as a result. One of the few big powers London’s Mayor actually has is over transport. Johnson’s predecessor Ken Livingstone spotted it and manipulated things to bring in the congestion charge, raising enough money to fund more buses.
Johnson sustained that interest in infrastructure. I remember him talking with energy over a pizza and bottle of wine one lunchtime about how sorting out transport is the best way to shape the future you can find — and some of what London is like today is the result.
The cable car over the Thames from near the O2 Arena was Johnson’s doing, and however uneconomic, it wasn’t the stupidest idea in the world in a London whose commercial might has shifted east — and at least it is fun to use, as a few people do.
Boris Bikes were not his idea — Livingstone promised a scheme — but he was the Mayor who pushed on with them and identified himself with cycling, and made Transport for London get the scheme under way fast and make it a success that is now busier than ever.
It was Johnson who decided to get rid of bendy buses and get a new Routemaster designed and introduced. Lots of politicians could have promised it. Not many would actually have got the new buses on the streets.
But then, lots of politicians would also have worried about the baking heat on the windowless top decks, or asked who would pay for the expensive conductors needed to keep the doors open so the platforms could be used to jump on and off (answer: no one paid, so the platforms are useless).
It was Johnson who picked Andrew Gilligan as his cycling adviser — it is said the Mayor wasn’t brave enough to reverse out of a half-made decision once news of it appeared in the Daily Mail.
However infuriating you found Gilligan (the answer for most people was “very”), without him and Johnson’s refusal to bend to the pressure of all those who had good reasons to delay the Cycle Superhighways scheme, we wouldn’t have seen them built.
Hate the routes, and you can blame Johnson. Love them and you’ll have to thank him too. Canary Wharf loathed the Embankment cycleway, which it feared would slow taxi trips out east, and lobbied hard but that didn’t stop them. So he’s not weak.
But don’t think everything he says will happen either. If you want to know how real some of his hopes turned out to be, why not try skiing at the Westfield Centre in Stratford? The point is you can’t, despite a £200 million scheme he backed there in 2013.
We once had a meeting in which Johnson banged on for a bit about the vital importance of the project and asked why central government was opposed. The next item on the agenda was his request for lots of money to make Stratford rail station busier, with a new platform.
We pointed out that he could either have the ski centre or the platform but not both, because they were planned for exactly the same spot. “Is this true, gang?” he boomed. It was. We never heard of the ski slope again.
There were plenty more schemes like that, and it’s no disgrace — in government you’d never get anywhere if you only tried things that were certain to happen.
Johnson wasn’t ever interested in numbers or the detail of things but he did like firing up the big sense of romance. And he’d keep turning to the same people: as Mayor he had a team working for him.
He’ll find it tough, if he gets to Number 10, to discover that Cabinet ministers aren’t his advisers and that Downing Street can be a small, lonely and powerless place.
Already the names of his old advisers are cropping up — people such as Doug Oakervee, the engineer he has asked to review HS2.
That, by the way, is being taken as a sign he won’t cancel the project, though he hates its plans at Euston, with the line running right up to his father’s old house — which was eventually bought out for millions.
Oakervee was one of the drivers of his obsession with opposing Heathrow expansion and his plan for a massively environmentally damaging and unworkable new airport in the Thames estuary instead.
The best of Boris Johnson – In pictures
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London’s Mayor Boris Johnson collides with 10-year-old Toki Sekiguchi during a game of Street Rugby with a group of Tokyo children, outside the Tokyo Square Gardens building on October 15, 2015
Reuters
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London Mayor Boris Johnson (left) poses with a wax figure of himself as it is unveiled at the Madame Tussauds waxwork museum in London on May 5, 2009
AFP/Getty Images
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson cycles with former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger on March 31, 2011 in London
Getty Images
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London Mayor Boris Johnson, dangles from a zipwire in London’s Victoria Park, shot by passer by Rebecca Denton on August 01, 2012 in London, England. A publicity stunt at a public viewing area for the Olympic Games went awry leaving Johnson stranded some 15 feet off the ground. The Mayor was left clutching his Union Flags for roughy five minutes before rescuers came to help him down
Getty Images
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Foreign secretary Boris Johnson passes Carrie Symonds as he leaves the Conservative Party Black and White Ball at the Natural History Museum on February 7, 2018
(Photo by Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images)
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Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson arrives at his home on September 10, 2018 in Thame
Getty Images
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Boris Johnson out jogging in 2017
Jeremy Selwyn
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Boris Johnson and now-estranged wife Marina arrive to cast their votes at a polling station in Islington on May 5, 2016
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Former London Mayor, and “Vote Leave” campaigner, Boris Johnson is pictured with a pint of beer ahead of meeting with members of the public and supporters in Piercebridge, near Darlington on June 22, 2016
AFP/Getty Images
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Boris Johnson MP, Labour MP Gisela Stuart and UKIP MP Douglas Carswell address the people of Stafford in Market Square during the Vote Leave, Brexit Battle Bus tour on May 17, 2016 in Stafford
Getty Images
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London Mayor Boris Johnson addresses supporters during a rally for the ‘Vote Leave’ campaign on April 15, 2016 in Manchester
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London Mayor Boris Johnson takes part in a game of football during a visit to the Millwall Football Club Community Trust on January 14, 2015 in London
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson slips over while competing in a tug of war during the launch of London Poppy Day on October 27, 2015 in London
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Mayor of London, Boris Johnson holds a fish during a visit at the Mahane Yehuda market on November 10, 2015 in Jerusalem, Israel
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Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative party, David Cameron, Mayor of London and Conservative party candidate for the Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency, Boris Johnson, show their hands after participating in a hand-painting session at the Advantage children’s daycare nursey during a UK general election campaign event in Surbiton, London on April 22, 2015
AFP/Getty Images
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Boris Johnson, Conservative candidate for Uxbridge celebrates on stage his win as he attends the count at Brunel University London on May 8, 2015 in Uxbridge
Getty Images
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A cyclist makes a hand gesture to Mayor of London Boris Johnson as he cycles over Vauxhall Bridge to launch London’s first cycle superhighway on November 19, 2015 in London
Getty Images
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Boris Johnson eats a bacon roll in the cafe of the new community shop in Gypsy Hill in 2015
Jeremy Selwyn
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Boris Johnson stretches ahead of a tug of war during the launch of London Poppy Day on October 27, 2015
Getty Images
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson attends the World Premiere Centrepiece Gala, supported by the Mayor of London, red carpet arrivals for “Testament Of Youth” during the 58th BFI London Film Festival at The Mayfair Hotel on October 14, 2014
Getty Images
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson and Brian Blessed are proud in launching ‘London Poppy Day’ at Liverpool Street Station, calling on Londoners to help raise over £1m on October 27, 2014
Getty Images
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Santander Brand ambassador Rory McIlroy looks on as Mayor of London Boris Johnson hits a golf ball during the launch of Santander 1|2|3 World at Potters Field, Tower Bridge on September 18, 2014 in London
Getty Images
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The Mayor of London Boris Johnson wears a traditional headdress during a visit to the Shree Swaminarayan Mandir, a major new Hindu temple being built in Kingsbury on May 28, 2014 in London
Getty Images
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson holds a brick as he addresses delegates on the third day of the annual British Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, on September 30, 2014
AFP/Getty Images
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson boxes with a trainer during his visit to Fight for Peace Academy, Woolwich, London on October 28, 2014
AFP/Getty Images
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London Mayor Boris Johnson plays wheelchair tennis with Jordanne Whiley of GB during a wheelchair tennis photocall to promote the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters tournament on November 24, 2014 in London
Getty Images
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson takes part in wheelchair rugby demonstration in central London on May 7, 2014 to officially launch the World Wheelchair Rugby Challenge
Getty Images
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson and Prime Minister David Cameron meet apprentices and students during a visit to Harrow Skills Centre as they took to the campaign trail together on May 12, 2014 in London
Getty Images
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London mayor Boris Johnson helps shear a sheep held by New Zealand’s most successful competition sheep shearer, David Fagan (left) on a visit to Lister Shearing Equipment on May 13, 2014 in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire
Getty Images
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London’s Mayor Boris Johnson wields a huge hammer, before placing a pavement stone of the soon-to-be completed, at King’s Cross Square in London on 07 August 2013. The square is the final part of the 500 million pound sterling King’s Cross station redevelopment
EPA
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Prime Minister David Cameron and Mayor of London Boris Johnson are pictured during a visit to a Crossrail construction site underneath Tottenham Court Road, London on January 16, 2014
AFP/Getty Images
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London Mayor Boris Johnson kissing saltwater crocodile George, at Darwin International Airport, Australia in 2013. Baby crocodile was named after the royal baby
EPA
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Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, uses a ‘vibrating poker’ on freshly poured concrete at the construction site of the ‘Greenwich Square’ housing development on November 25, 2013 in London
Getty Images
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson takes part in activities during the NatWest CricketForce event at Harrow Town CC Ground on April 5, 2013
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London Mayor Boris Johnson laughs in action during the Rally Against Cancer charity match on day seven of the AEGON Championships at Queens Club on June 16, 2013
Getty Images
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London Mayor Boris Johnson shoots the ball during a photocall in central London on April 8, 2013 to promote the 2013 Euroleague Final Four
AFP/Getty Images
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Boris Johnson eats a school dinner at the Reach Academy, Feltham with 5 year old Emmanuel in 2013
Jeremy Selwyn
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Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, greets Holly Butlin as he meets voters in Richmond after launching his bid to be re-elected as Mayor on April 10, 2012 in London
Getty Images
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London Mayor Boris Johnson travels on the London Underground after casting his vote in the local elections at a polling station in north London on May 3, 2012
AFP/Getty Images
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London Mayor Boris Johnson cheers on the athletes on Day 8 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium on August 4, 2012
Getty Images
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London Mayor Boris Johnson poses for photographers in the dining area of the London 2012 Olympic Athletes Village in the Olympic Park on July 12, 2012
AFP/Getty Images
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Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, and actress Barbara Windsor play Sitting Volleyball after the Women’s Sitting Volleyball Preliminaries Pool A match between Great Britain and Ukraine on day 2 of the London 2012 Paralympic Games at ExCel on August 31, 2012
Getty Images
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson addresses a press conference entitled ‘Delivering a lasting legacy from the London 2012 Games’ on August 9, 2012
AFP/Getty Images
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Prime Minister David Cameron stands with London Mayor Boris Johnson as the Olympic cauldron is lit for the Paralympic Games in Trafalgar Square on August 24, 2012
Getty Images
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Boris Johnson launching the Overground service from Clapham Junction to Canada Water in 2012
Jeremy Selwyn
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Boris Johnson captured enjoying Beach Volleyball at the London 2012 Olympics
Jeremy Selwyn
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson poses with members of Notting Hill Carnival mas band Genesis during a photocall on August 24, 2011 in London
Getty Images
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Borin Johnson draws a cartoon in City Hall and meets a group of Newspaper cartoonists in 2010
Jeremy Selwyn
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson poses with artists impressions of the design for London’s new Routemaster bus on May 17, 2010 in London
Getty Images
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London Mayor Boris Johnson and musician Newton Faulkner pose during a photocall at London Bridge Underground station on March 28, 2011
Getty Images
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Michel Platini hands over the UEFA Champions League Trophy to the Mayor of London Boris Johnson at the Guildhall, London on April 20, 2011
Getty Images
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Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, poses for pictures in London on May 28, 2010 during a photocall to promote the launch of London’s cycle hire scheme
AFP/Getty Images
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Boris Johnson blows a Vuvuzela in Cape Town, South Africa in 2010
Jeremy Selwyn
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Boris Johnson celebrates the 2010 Chinese New Year in 2010
Jeremy Selwyn
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London Mayor Boris Johnson plays table tennis with school children at Bermondsey Square, London on June 25, 2010
Getty Images
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson poses for photographs with a group of Indian Dancers at the opening of the new East London overground rail link at Dalston Junction on April 27, 2010 in London
Getty Images
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London Mayor Boris Johnson stands with two knights at Leadenhall Market, London for St George’s Day on April 23, 2009
Getty Images
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Mayor of London, Boris Johnson visits a bus depot in Peckham to oversee the first decommissioning of the capital’s bendy busses on July 24, 2009 in London
Getty Images
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Mayor Boris Johnson wears a pink stetson hat at London’s Gay Pride parade on July 5, 2008
Getty Images
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Conservative Party mayoral candidate Boris Johnson is dressed in a shawl by local community members during his visit to the Husseini Mosque in Northholt on April 4, 2008 in London
Getty Images
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MP Boris Johnson looks apologetic after fouling Maurizio Gaudino of Germany during the Legends match between England and Germany at The Madejski Stadium on May 3, 2006 in Reading
Getty Images
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Boris Johnson, MP and editor of the Spectator, returns home after a morning jog in 2004
Glenn Copus
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London’s Mayor Boris Johnson collides with 10-year-old Toki Sekiguchi during a game of Street Rugby with a group of Tokyo children, outside the Tokyo Square Gardens building on October 15, 2015
Reuters
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London Mayor Boris Johnson (left) poses with a wax figure of himself as it is unveiled at the Madame Tussauds waxwork museum in London on May 5, 2009
AFP/Getty Images
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson cycles with former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger on March 31, 2011 in London
Getty Images
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London Mayor Boris Johnson, dangles from a zipwire in London’s Victoria Park, shot by passer by Rebecca Denton on August 01, 2012 in London, England. A publicity stunt at a public viewing area for the Olympic Games went awry leaving Johnson stranded some 15 feet off the ground. The Mayor was left clutching his Union Flags for roughy five minutes before rescuers came to help him down
Getty Images
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Foreign secretary Boris Johnson passes Carrie Symonds as he leaves the Conservative Party Black and White Ball at the Natural History Museum on February 7, 2018
(Photo by Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images)
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Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson arrives at his home on September 10, 2018 in Thame
Getty Images
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Boris Johnson out jogging in 2017
Jeremy Selwyn
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Boris Johnson and now-estranged wife Marina arrive to cast their votes at a polling station in Islington on May 5, 2016
Getty Images
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Former London Mayor, and “Vote Leave” campaigner, Boris Johnson is pictured with a pint of beer ahead of meeting with members of the public and supporters in Piercebridge, near Darlington on June 22, 2016
AFP/Getty Images
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Boris Johnson MP, Labour MP Gisela Stuart and UKIP MP Douglas Carswell address the people of Stafford in Market Square during the Vote Leave, Brexit Battle Bus tour on May 17, 2016 in Stafford
Getty Images
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London Mayor Boris Johnson addresses supporters during a rally for the ‘Vote Leave’ campaign on April 15, 2016 in Manchester
Getty Images
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London Mayor Boris Johnson takes part in a game of football during a visit to the Millwall Football Club Community Trust on January 14, 2015 in London
Getty Images
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson slips over while competing in a tug of war during the launch of London Poppy Day on October 27, 2015 in London
Getty Images
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Mayor of London, Boris Johnson holds a fish during a visit at the Mahane Yehuda market on November 10, 2015 in Jerusalem, Israel
Getty Images
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Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative party, David Cameron, Mayor of London and Conservative party candidate for the Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency, Boris Johnson, show their hands after participating in a hand-painting session at the Advantage children’s daycare nursey during a UK general election campaign event in Surbiton, London on April 22, 2015
AFP/Getty Images
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Boris Johnson, Conservative candidate for Uxbridge celebrates on stage his win as he attends the count at Brunel University London on May 8, 2015 in Uxbridge
Getty Images
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A cyclist makes a hand gesture to Mayor of London Boris Johnson as he cycles over Vauxhall Bridge to launch London’s first cycle superhighway on November 19, 2015 in London
Getty Images
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Boris Johnson eats a bacon roll in the cafe of the new community shop in Gypsy Hill in 2015
Jeremy Selwyn
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Boris Johnson stretches ahead of a tug of war during the launch of London Poppy Day on October 27, 2015
Getty Images
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson attends the World Premiere Centrepiece Gala, supported by the Mayor of London, red carpet arrivals for “Testament Of Youth” during the 58th BFI London Film Festival at The Mayfair Hotel on October 14, 2014
Getty Images
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson and Brian Blessed are proud in launching ‘London Poppy Day’ at Liverpool Street Station, calling on Londoners to help raise over £1m on October 27, 2014
Getty Images
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Santander Brand ambassador Rory McIlroy looks on as Mayor of London Boris Johnson hits a golf ball during the launch of Santander 1|2|3 World at Potters Field, Tower Bridge on September 18, 2014 in London
Getty Images
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The Mayor of London Boris Johnson wears a traditional headdress during a visit to the Shree Swaminarayan Mandir, a major new Hindu temple being built in Kingsbury on May 28, 2014 in London
Getty Images
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson holds a brick as he addresses delegates on the third day of the annual British Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, on September 30, 2014
AFP/Getty Images
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson boxes with a trainer during his visit to Fight for Peace Academy, Woolwich, London on October 28, 2014
AFP/Getty Images
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London Mayor Boris Johnson plays wheelchair tennis with Jordanne Whiley of GB during a wheelchair tennis photocall to promote the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters tournament on November 24, 2014 in London
Getty Images
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson takes part in wheelchair rugby demonstration in central London on May 7, 2014 to officially launch the World Wheelchair Rugby Challenge
Getty Images
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson and Prime Minister David Cameron meet apprentices and students during a visit to Harrow Skills Centre as they took to the campaign trail together on May 12, 2014 in London
Getty Images
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London mayor Boris Johnson helps shear a sheep held by New Zealand’s most successful competition sheep shearer, David Fagan (left) on a visit to Lister Shearing Equipment on May 13, 2014 in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire
Getty Images
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London’s Mayor Boris Johnson wields a huge hammer, before placing a pavement stone of the soon-to-be completed, at King’s Cross Square in London on 07 August 2013. The square is the final part of the 500 million pound sterling King’s Cross station redevelopment
EPA
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Prime Minister David Cameron and Mayor of London Boris Johnson are pictured during a visit to a Crossrail construction site underneath Tottenham Court Road, London on January 16, 2014
AFP/Getty Images
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London Mayor Boris Johnson kissing saltwater crocodile George, at Darwin International Airport, Australia in 2013. Baby crocodile was named after the royal baby
EPA
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Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, uses a ‘vibrating poker’ on freshly poured concrete at the construction site of the ‘Greenwich Square’ housing development on November 25, 2013 in London
Getty Images
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson takes part in activities during the NatWest CricketForce event at Harrow Town CC Ground on April 5, 2013
Getty Images
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London Mayor Boris Johnson laughs in action during the Rally Against Cancer charity match on day seven of the AEGON Championships at Queens Club on June 16, 2013
Getty Images
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London Mayor Boris Johnson shoots the ball during a photocall in central London on April 8, 2013 to promote the 2013 Euroleague Final Four
AFP/Getty Images
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Boris Johnson eats a school dinner at the Reach Academy, Feltham with 5 year old Emmanuel in 2013
Jeremy Selwyn
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Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, greets Holly Butlin as he meets voters in Richmond after launching his bid to be re-elected as Mayor on April 10, 2012 in London
Getty Images
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London Mayor Boris Johnson travels on the London Underground after casting his vote in the local elections at a polling station in north London on May 3, 2012
AFP/Getty Images
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London Mayor Boris Johnson cheers on the athletes on Day 8 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium on August 4, 2012
Getty Images
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London Mayor Boris Johnson poses for photographers in the dining area of the London 2012 Olympic Athletes Village in the Olympic Park on July 12, 2012
AFP/Getty Images
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Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, and actress Barbara Windsor play Sitting Volleyball after the Women’s Sitting Volleyball Preliminaries Pool A match between Great Britain and Ukraine on day 2 of the London 2012 Paralympic Games at ExCel on August 31, 2012
Getty Images
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson addresses a press conference entitled ‘Delivering a lasting legacy from the London 2012 Games’ on August 9, 2012
AFP/Getty Images
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Prime Minister David Cameron stands with London Mayor Boris Johnson as the Olympic cauldron is lit for the Paralympic Games in Trafalgar Square on August 24, 2012
Getty Images
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Boris Johnson launching the Overground service from Clapham Junction to Canada Water in 2012
Jeremy Selwyn
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Boris Johnson captured enjoying Beach Volleyball at the London 2012 Olympics
Jeremy Selwyn
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson poses with members of Notting Hill Carnival mas band Genesis during a photocall on August 24, 2011 in London
Getty Images
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Borin Johnson draws a cartoon in City Hall and meets a group of Newspaper cartoonists in 2010
Jeremy Selwyn
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson poses with artists impressions of the design for London’s new Routemaster bus on May 17, 2010 in London
Getty Images
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London Mayor Boris Johnson and musician Newton Faulkner pose during a photocall at London Bridge Underground station on March 28, 2011
Getty Images
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Michel Platini hands over the UEFA Champions League Trophy to the Mayor of London Boris Johnson at the Guildhall, London on April 20, 2011
Getty Images
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Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, poses for pictures in London on May 28, 2010 during a photocall to promote the launch of London’s cycle hire scheme
AFP/Getty Images
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Boris Johnson blows a Vuvuzela in Cape Town, South Africa in 2010
Jeremy Selwyn
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Boris Johnson celebrates the 2010 Chinese New Year in 2010
Jeremy Selwyn
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London Mayor Boris Johnson plays table tennis with school children at Bermondsey Square, London on June 25, 2010
Getty Images
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson poses for photographs with a group of Indian Dancers at the opening of the new East London overground rail link at Dalston Junction on April 27, 2010 in London
Getty Images
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London Mayor Boris Johnson stands with two knights at Leadenhall Market, London for St George’s Day on April 23, 2009
Getty Images
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Mayor of London, Boris Johnson visits a bus depot in Peckham to oversee the first decommissioning of the capital’s bendy busses on July 24, 2009 in London
Getty Images
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Mayor Boris Johnson wears a pink stetson hat at London’s Gay Pride parade on July 5, 2008
Getty Images
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Conservative Party mayoral candidate Boris Johnson is dressed in a shawl by local community members during his visit to the Husseini Mosque in Northholt on April 4, 2008 in London
Getty Images
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MP Boris Johnson looks apologetic after fouling Maurizio Gaudino of Germany during the Legends match between England and Germany at The Madejski Stadium on May 3, 2006 in Reading
Getty Images
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Boris Johnson, MP and editor of the Spectator, returns home after a morning jog in 2004
Glenn Copus
I could never really work out what it was that drove Johnson’s obsession with this scheme — which had all sorts of consequences, including his opposition to expanding London City Airport. Even though the local council backed it, he didn’t have any legal power to stop it and there was no political gain for him in it.
Maybe his anti-Heathrow stance was just crude politics. Maybe it was self-interest. Or maybe it was the thrill of pushing on with something massive, however impractical, as a sort of talking point that was more glorious than the boring task of trying to decide if Heathrow should have two runways or three.
The more everyone explained what was wrong with the idea of shutting it and moving east, the more interesting it became to him, like writing a controversial newspaper column with lots of letters in reply and hopefully a BBC invite to appear on Question Time. It made him special and different.
In a way, Brexit has become his new estuary airport, even though it is by many magnitudes a much more terrible and damaging idea. I’m not sure he will care when people tell him this.
But all his bluster about the glories of flying from somewhere by the Thames didn’t make the scheme take off. Maybe, as long as he’s allowed to talk about Brexit, he won’t mind if that doesn’t actually happen either.