Boris Johnson’s former boss at the Daily Telegraph, Sir Max Hastings, has accused the Prime Minister of being a “fantasist” and “completely self-obsessed”.

He told talkRADIO’s Julia Hartley-Brewer Mr Johnson’s premiership has “turned out pretty much as you’d expect”.

“He’s always been a fantasist. He’s never had much grip on reality,” he said.

“With Johnson everything’s always been about Johnson and the only people who think he’s a nice guy are those who don’t know him.”

He added: “He’s less fit to be Prime Minister than my Labrador”.

Despite the harsh words, Sir Max said Mr Johnson was a “brilliant journalist” who was one of his “favourite colleagues” while he was editor-in-chief of The Daily Telegraph.

He continued: “But if somebody had said to me all those years ago that Boris Johnson wanted to be Prime Minister or would be Prime Minister I’d say ‘anybody who would make Boris Prime Minister must be out of their mind’.”

Mr Johnson worked as the Daily Telegraph’s Brussels Correspondent from 1989 until 1994 and positioned himself as a Eurosceptic voice during his time in the role.

Sir Max said he hopes he is wrong about the Prime Minister as British politics has been “paralysed” by the Brexit impasse.

“I hope for the sake of our poor country that Johnson turns out to be all the things I didn’t think he was,” he said.

“I hope things turn out better because what’s going on is so serious that nobody, certainly including me could want Johnson to fail, and I personally think Brexit is going to happen.”

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