Jean-Claude Juncker has got some front. Today, to the glee of Boris-bashers and hardcore Remainers, he has accused Boris of having told lies during the EU referendum campaign.
Is he serious? This is a man who has publicly defended and even advocated lying. This is a man who has insisted that untruths are an essential part of political life. Sometimes ‘you have to lie’, Juncker once said. For him now to accuse Boris of being a liar is an act of staggering hypocrisy and technocratic cant.
As part of his slow-motion vacation of the role of president of the European Commission, Juncker has given an interview to Der Spiegel. In it, he takes some swipes at Boris. ‘So many lies were told’ during the EU referendum campaign, he says, including ‘by current prime minister, Boris Johnson…’
He criticises the Remainer movement, including ‘my friend’ Tony Blair, for lacking ‘a voice’ that might have countered these lies.
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