Is Boris Johnson a Liar?

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

62% : The "lie" that Britain could save £350 million a week by leaving the EU enrages those who opposed Brexit -- and who never believed the assertion in the first place.
59% : It is easy to see how voters will continue to believe in Brexit itself but conclude that Johnson is no longer sincerely on their side, believing him to have prioritized other issues -- post-pandemic economic recovery, the government's efforts to tackle climate change, clearing the backlog faced by the health service -- over their take-home pay.
58% : The same is true of Brexit: Most economists are sure Britain will not be as prosperous outside the EU as it would have been if it had stayed in, but that does not make leaving an illegitimate decision.
53% : They are angry because they believe it was used knowingly in pursuit of a deeper falsehood -- that Britain would be better off outside the EU -- or because of their sense that Brexit was about not money or democracy, but border control and immigration.
53% : Some of those people who believed in Brexit and the sincerity of the campaign for it now face a triple whammy of Brexit-induced inflation, tax hikes, and rising household bills to pay for the shift toward renewable energy.
51% : If the Krastev-Holmes theory holds, it is because the fact never mattered much to the people who supported Brexit.
51% : Take Johnson's speech to the United Nations last week in which, ostensibly addressing the perils of climate change, he spoke of the belief that people still cling to that "the world was made for our gratification and pleasure" and that whatever mess we make, someone else will always clean it up.
50% : The story, in its most uncharitable telling, is this: In 2016, Johnson said Brexit would both save British taxpayers £350 million a week in contributions to Brussels -- money that could be better spent on Britain's National Health Service -- and free up the country to negotiate a trade deal with Washington.
48% : Then, on a visit to New York City, he claimed that he had always been clear that Britain would struggle to reach a trade deal with the United States, despite having previously told voters that the ability to negotiate such agreements was one of the key benefits of Brexit.
48% : One of Johnson's long-term political rivals told me that the prime minister was basically a moderate conservative, but had been seduced by Brexit, which he had never previously argued for, "through a combination of ambition and romantic patriotism.
46% : Some insist that he was never really a euroskeptic journalist, or that he never really believed in Brexit but was happy playing the part because it brought him fame, notoriety, and power.
46% : When it comes to taxes or any manifesto commitments, does Johnson really care about them or is he prepared to say anything to win an election?
39% : He doesn't believe Britain has been a victim of the postwar American order or even, really, of European Union membership; nor does he want a new world order.
38% : I thought about this recently when Johnson broke an election pledge not to increase taxes.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.