The difference between Phillip Schofield and Boris Johnson? Both are centres of scandals and cover-ups
I cover up things which weren’t in the public interest, like the fact that I ride a non-electric scooter on cycle lanes. Or that I make buses out of shoe boxes. Or that I make up rap rhymes in my head. But there are cover-ups and scandals which are in the public interest and which should result in accountability, like a relationship you had with someone much younger than you, messages you sent to government ministers on WhatsApp about the Covid pandemic and lying about both separately.
Phillip Schofield and Boris Johnson are the main characters in both scandals. Both of whom have, despite committing these scandals, enjoyed years and years of lucrative careers, media exposure and glorious opportunities of taking the piss out of every single poor person in this country. I’ll tell you why they’re both in deep shit, but you needn’t believe me, but rather the scandals themselves.
Boris Johnson was the prime minister of the Disunited Kingdom from July 2019 to September 2022. Between these years, whilst most of the UK couldn’t go out due to coronavirus, he had several parties in Downing Street, therefore breaking the rules he had set himself. Partygate, as it’s known, didn’t bring him down, but unrelated matters did — the governmental appointment of Chris Pincher, who’s had sexual misconduct allegations in his name, and several resignations in the government by over 50 people.
Johnson didn’t just have parties in Downing Street — he even had them in his other home, Chequers, where it became a police matter after civil servants in the Cabinet Office referred him to the Met, who’ll do obviously fuck all when it comes to prosecuting brazen and political criminals like him. Especially when he was fined £50 one time, whilst many others were fined way worse, particularly around £1,000s.
And speaking of WhatsApp messages, the Covid inquiry, which had got underway and is looking at the handling of the pandemic in the UK, ordered Johnson to hand over the messages and notebooks, which he finally did despite Rishi Sunak’s government planning to take legal action to make sure that the messages didn’t get out. They’re basically trying to prevent the truth about what was being said from getting out there.
The way the Tories are operating right now, it’s like a political Waystar Royco in Succession, only that Brian Cox (who plays media owner Logan Roy in the drama) would want no part in this shithole charade. Johnson is the antagonist in all this, because whilst the bastard partied, none of us could see our families, friends and enemies. We couldn’t even have birthday parties, but yet he thought he could be untouchable and didn’t practice what he preached.
Speaking of scandals and downfalls, Phillip Schofield hosted ITV’s daytime magazine programme This Morning for over 20 years, and in these years, he had an affair with a then-colleague who’s much younger than him, which led to him resigning not just from This Morning, but from ITV completely. He was dropped by his agents and was removed as an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust, basically confirming him as TV’s Prince Andrew.
Schofield said he met the young man (who isn’t being named for legal reasons) when he was 15, and gave him a first gig on This Morning when he was 18, in which it “became more than just a friendship” and that the relationship was “unwise but not illegal”, which will make better contender for Best Worst Comment of the Week, if it existed. ITV said it had investigated but then both parties denied it. Their chief executive Carolyn McCall is to answer questions from MPs in a committee about what the network knew about what Schofield did.
Holly Willoughby, who had been Schofield’s longtime co-presenter for 14 years, initially said that the This Morning sofa “won’t feel the same without him” on her Instagram stories. A week after recent relevations about him broke the news, she said it’s “been very hurtful to now found out” that he lied about the affair. She hasn’t been seen on the programme since the scandal, basically in hiding until about Monday, when she’s due to return.
Schofield gave his first interviews with the BBC and the Sun since the scandal, in which he said he’s “lost everything” and his “career is over”, but had denied grooming the young man. This Morning, his former paradise, had barely talked about him until that interview, in which Alison Hammond got emotional and said she found the interview “painful”. Even Schofield’s actions and his admission can bring about emotions.
At the end of the day, whatever scandals you have committed or been involved in, with the help of the British media to cover them up for years until you can no longer do so, it will always be helpful to realise that the truth can’t save you, until you come clean and be honest, not just with yourself, but with everyone else you lied to.
Nobody is protected from accountability, especially me, and until we commit to truth and transparency in public life, anything we say and do will be seen as either “fake truths” or, as you can put it, lies.
*By the way, here’s a column I wrote about Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby’s reported “feud” in mid-May, but since then things have developed hugely. Hopefully my next column will feature neither of them, but as they all say, nothing’s promised.*
