Succession star Brian Cox slams Boris Johnson as a 'compulsive liar'

'We have a compulsive liar who is actually leading the country'

Succession star and acclaimed actor Brian Cox accused Boris Johnson of being a “compulsive liar” and said it is “extraordinary” he is tolerated.

Mr Cox, who has previously shown support for Labour, took aim at the prime minister while discussing social mobility in the UK.

Speaking on ITV’s Peston show about the difficulty young actors face in trying to launch a career, he compared today’s “out of hand” market to the 60s - when he rented a London flat for £3.50 a week.

Noting a longstanding failure to improve social mobility, he added: “We've lost the plot on so many levels and now, we have a compulsive liar who is actually leading the country, and that liar is tolerated.

“I find it extraordinary. I come back here and there is this man who... wouldn’t know the truth if it landed on him.”

Mr Johnson is among of 50 people sent questionnaires by the Metropolitan Police as part of its criminal investigation into partygate – allegations of several lockdown-breaching parties at Downing Street.

Defending the prime minister, Tory MP Bob Seely said Mr Johnson, has “many fine qualities.”

“He has occasionally skirted around issues in a way that he shouldn’t,” Mr Seely said on the Peston show.

“I hope we get over this period and I hope he makes his apologies and I hope they mean something.

“I’ve found him to be just really intellectually engaged and a good person when I deal with him, so I’m going to stick up for him in that sense. I wish this wretched partygate hadn’t happened.”

Mr Cox also admitted he thought New Labour, which came to power in 1997, would herald a “magnificent” time.

“But then Iraq, and the million-man march went for nothing,” he said.

Ukraine's Ambassador to the UK Vadym Prystaiko, meanwhile, was asked about the prospects of joining NATO .

"At least until NATO is here, we will try to get into the alliance," he said.

Peston asked if he was prepared to make a statement saying there is no possibility for years, and he responded: "As concessions, we were discussing, they live in a totally different domain, with Minsk and everything that's been discussed.

"Our security is provided by one mechanism which we found nothing better than NATO in our part of the globe.

"And we have to get to [the] issue of security each and every time. We can't have this conversation, we can't have these Russian troops at our borders.

"We have to resolve it once and for all. This is the NATO, nothing is better in this part of the globe."

Also on the show, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps was questioned about Russia oligarch money, of which London is the centre.

He told Peston: “We look for people’s money to be proven, to be made in a legitimate manner.

“Britain is of course a very open country, but we also have, for example, through things like Companies House and our auditing system some of the highest standards in the world when it comes to auditing.”

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