Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has been under increasing pressure after the revelation that his claim – including in a televised interview – that the Porton Down chemical weapons laboratory told him ‘categorically’ that ‘there is no doubt’ the Salisbury nerve agent came from Russia was a complete falsehood.
Yesterday’s Sky News interview, in which the head of Porton Down said it had been unable to identify a source, has exposed Johnson’s claim as a fabrication – and forced the Foreign Office to delete a tweet it had put out with the same false claim.
Sky News and Channel 4 News have given reasonable coverage to the issue – but the BBC’s coverage has framed the issue in terms of Johnson giving Russia ‘wiggle room’ to deny culpability.
The real issue – whether Johnson lied to us all and should resign or be sacked – has not been examined.
But in its exertions to cover for Johnson, the BBC has handed the UK public a ‘smoking gun’ of the Corporation abandoning its charter to report impartially – as this video reveals:
The Tories have been desperately pushing the line that Johnson was merely talking about Porton Down’s identification of the substance, not of the source – but the video evidence is conclusive.
Of Johnson’s false claim – and now of the BBC’s attempt to cover for him.
While helping obscure Johnson’s guilt, the BBC has been pushing the Establishment’s other line – that Corbyn is ‘siding with Russia’ by saying Johnson has questions to answer for ‘completely exceeding the evidence’.
As if it’s not completely clear that the blame lies with Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn has a duty to point out that he misled not only the people of the UK but also twenty-eight countries that expelled Russian diplomats on the basis of Johnson’s certainty.
Which he admitted in the interview came from Porton Down’s ‘categorical’ confirmation – which Porton Down say never happened.
Boris Johnson must resign – and if he does not resign, he must be sacked.
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