If history teaches us anything, it’s that alcohol and politics go together like gin and tonic

After Boris Johnson was attacked for his drinking habits, David Harding finds plenty of examples of leaders under the influence

The prime minister enjoys a pint during a visit to Wolverhampton (Getty)

Boris Johnson deserves all the condemnation he gets but his critics abroad may have chosen the wrong weapon – booze – to attack him with in recent days. This week, a prominent Belarusian television host described the prime minister as an “alcoholic” who “drinks low-quality vodka”.

A mistake, perhaps, for alcohol and politics go together like gin and tonic. History, it turns out, has long been under the influence of drink, from tales of Alexander the Great burning Persopolis to the ground in a drunken rage, Borgias killing rivals with poisoned wine, Peter the Great’s pet monkey attacking King William III at a bacchanalian summit, Britannia ruling the waves while feeding sailors with rum, the Russian-Japanese War having a cocktail named after it, all through to Johnson’s hero Churchill, and Pol Roger champagne.

In puritanical America, a first draft of one of the most famous documents in history, the US Declaration of Independence, was scribbled by Thomas Jefferson in a Philadelphia tavern. After serving office as the third American president, Jefferson left a wine tab of more than $10,000 – in 1809.