Booing the prime minister is what a free country does

Disrespect for leaders may be boisterous, crude and unfair, but it is the essence of democracy, writes John Rentoul

Johnson is unpopular at the moment (Reuters)

Too much has possibly been read into what the BBC described as Boris Johnson’s “mixed” reception by the crowds outside St Paul’s Cathedral on Friday. Some of the instant commentary took it as confirmation that the prime minister was finished and that his MPs would be getting rid of him on Monday.

I thought it merely confirmed two things we already knew. One is that Johnson is unpopular at the moment. The opinion polls have been telling us that since Christmas. The other is that we live in a free country, where people, luckily, are able to express their opinions, often rudely, in public.

There weren’t that many people at the front of the cathedral as Boris and Carrie got out of the car and went up the steps, but the boos and whistles were certainly louder than the cheers.