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29 November 2019updated 25 Jul 2021 6:58am

“That would require a degree of literacy”: Boris Johnson’s dad insults the British public

By Election Mole

Faced with a viewer labelling his son “Pinocchio” on the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme, Stanley Johnson decided the best response was to insult the entirety of the British public.

With so few weapons in his rhetorical armoury to counter the suggestion that Boris Johnson has been economical with the truth, Stanley came out with:

“Pinocchio? That requires a degree of literacy which I think the Great British public doesn’t necessarily have.”

When presenter Joanna Gosling addressed his snobbery, calling it “quite a pejorative thing to say about the Great British public”, Johnson doubled down:

“They couldn’t spell ‘Pinocchio’ if they tried, I should’ve thought. Can you spell Pinocchio? Have a go, have a go.”

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