The outlandish claims from Repubblica last night that Boris recently took a secret weekend trip to Italy, based on eye witness accounts from staff at Perugia airport, got more than a few people over-excited. According to one very specific account, the PM landed in Perugia on Friday 11th September at 2 pm and left on Monday Morning (14th). Downing Street downplayed the story, simply saying “this claim is wrong.”
Two pieces of evidence scupper the story entirely, however. Firstly as Harry Cole points out, that same Saturday the PM was in the UK at his son Wilfred’s christening at Westminster Cathedral.
Guido also points readers to this Tweet from MP Andrea Jenkyns on the Friday where it was known Boris was hosting a Zoom call for Tory MPs.
The Screenshot of the call clearly shows it was ongoing at 17.42, and unless Boris took the most realistic greenscreen outside of Holywood with him to Perugia, he definitely wasn’t there at 2pm on the 11th. Guido hopes Repubblica plans to do a follow-up story: Boris’s Italian doppelgänger…
