General election 2019: Boris Johnson says he has never told a lie during his political career ‘I may have got things wrong, I may have been mistaken, but I’ve never tried to deceive people’

Boris Johnson claimed he had never told a lie in his political career.

In an interview with ITV News, the Prime Minister said he had “never tried to deceive the public”.

His comments are likely to spark controversy as Mr Johnson has repeatedly made assertions about the European Union that turned out to be inaccurate.

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This included his spearheading of the Vote Leave slogan during the 2016 referendum that leaving the EU would hand an extra £350m to the NHS.

‘never tried to deceive’

Asked by ITV reporter Paul Brand if he could look him in the eye and say he has not lied in his political career, the PM said: “Absolutely not, absolutely not. I’ve never tried to deceive the public and I’ve always tried to be absolutely frank.

“I may have got things wrong, I may have been mistaken, but I’ve never tried to deceive people about the way I see things.

“I’m not going to pretend that in my political career I have not said or done things that have, you know, caused offence, that I haven’t made mistakes, I’ve certainly made mistakes.”

The claims appear to contradict a number of incidents during his political career when he has landed in hot water due to lies.

Is he lying?

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Mr Johnson was sacked by then-Conservative Party leader Michael Howard in 2004 for lying about whether he had been having an affair.

Lord Howard, who led the Tories between 2003 and 2005, sacked the then-shadow arts minister over a misrepresentation of his personal life.

The Prime Minister admitted he had “made mistakes”.

“I’m not going to pretend that in my political career I have not said or done things that have caused offence,” he said. “I have certainly made mistakes.”