PM’s mystery jaunt: does Boris Johnson have an ‘Italian doppelganger’?
The strange story of the prime minister’s alleged recent break in Perugia - and Downing Street’s denials
Boris Johnson has a track record of slipping away from his security detail to attend parties thrown by billionaire socialites - and according to Italian media, he’s at it again.
Back in July 2019, The Guardian was tipped off that Johnson had been spotted the previous year at an airport in Italy “looking like he had slept in his clothes”, after partying with media owner Evgeny Lebedev in his converted castle near Perugia.
And now eyebrows are being raised over fresh claims by Italian newspaper Repubblica that the prime minister popped over to Perugia earlier this month.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Downing Street has strongly denied the reports. So what exactly is going on?
The story so far
Late last night, Repubblica UK correspondent Antonello Guerrera tweeted a surprising exclusive: “According to a statement and local sources, Boris Johnson recently travelled to Perugia, in Italy, apparently on the Sept 12-13th weekend.”
Guerrera added that Downing Street had dismissed the claims, but says in his story that “local airport sources” told the newspaper that the PM had travelled through Perugia Airport.
An airport spokesperson backed up the claims, saying that both “Johnson and [Tony] Blair were here in Perugia last week” for separate events, Guerrera reports. One source is quoted as saying that the current UK leader arrived “on Friday 11 September at 2pm” and left the following Monday, and that former PM Blair was in Perugia from 8 to 11 September.
Johnson hosted a Zoom call with 256 Tory MPs on the Friday, but Gurrera says his “internet line was remarkably poor that evening and broke down for 20 minutes”. An MP on the call confirmed the issues, telling PoliticsHome that “when Johnson came back on the line he joked that he should probably invest in gigabit broadband”.
In a twist that has fuelled speculation, sources at the airport also said that a return flight on 14 September was delayed by 40 minutes - the same morning that Johnson cancelled a series of visits in London “at the last moment”, according to Repubblica.
Downing Street has flatly denied the claims as totally “wrong”. But as Guerrera notes, “Johnson has frequented several times Umbria’s main town”, mostly to visit British-Russian businessman Lebedev, who was nominated for a peerage by the PM in his most recent honours list.
So what is going on?
BBC Rome correspondent Mark Lowen tweeted this morning that Perugia airport was planning to issue “a clarification” of their statement that the PM was spotted there on the weekend of 12 September. But in a later update, Lowen wrote that the airport was “now telling us there will not necessarily be the clarification of the statement on Boris Johnson that they’d previously promised”.
However, Politico’s Alex Wickham reports that Downing Street officials say their boss has a seemingly watertight alibi: was at “his son’s christening in London on the Saturday”, which was hosted at Westminster Cathedral.
So is it all just an entertaining - if untrue - yarn?
Appearing on BBC News this morning, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps appeared to be hedging his bets, saying that Johnson was not in Perugia “as far as I am aware”.
But Conservative news site Guido Fawkes has wasted no time in rubbishing the “outlandish claims”, while eagerly anticipating Repubblica’s follow-up story: “Boris’s Italian doppelganger”.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Joe Evans is the world news editor at TheWeek.co.uk. He joined the team in 2019 and held roles including deputy news editor and acting news editor before moving into his current position in early 2021. He is a regular panellist on The Week Unwrapped podcast, discussing politics and foreign affairs.
Before joining The Week, he worked as a freelance journalist covering the UK and Ireland for German newspapers and magazines. A series of features on Brexit and the Irish border got him nominated for the Hostwriter Prize in 2019. Prior to settling down in London, he lived and worked in Cambodia, where he ran communications for a non-governmental organisation and worked as a journalist covering Southeast Asia. He has a master’s degree in journalism from City, University of London, and before that studied English Literature at the University of Manchester.
-
'A wonky bureaucratic tweak has dramatically changed how Americans drive'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Will Aukus pact survive a second Trump presidency?
Today's Big Question US, UK and Australia seek to expand 'game-changer' defence partnership ahead of Republican's possible return to White House
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Can Boris Johnson save Rishi Sunak?
Today's Big Question Former PM could 'make the difference' between losing the next election and annihilation
By The Week UK Published
-
It's the economy, Sunak: has 'Rishession' halted Tory fightback?
Today's Big Question PM's pledge to deliver economic growth is 'in tatters' as stagnation and falling living standards threaten Tory election wipeout
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Why your local council may be going bust
The Explainer Across England, local councils are suffering from grave financial problems
By The Week UK Published
-
Rishi Sunak and the right-wing press: heading for divorce?
Talking Point The Telegraph launches 'assault' on PM just as many Tory MPs are contemplating losing their seats
By Keumars Afifi-Sabet, The Week UK Published
-
'Making Russia pay for its aggression with its own assets has undeniable moral and practical appeal'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published