Why ‘sorry’ now seems to be the hardest word for many politicians

In Westminster as in life, someone who is self-assured can easily brush off criticisms if they so wish – instead of feeling the need to atone for them, writes Marie Le Conte

‘Rightly or wrongly, people do not really think of politicians as good people’ (PA)

Keir Starmer has the air of a man who would apologise to a lamppost for walking into it. Out of context, it is neither a good nor a bad thing; some people just look like they were born to say sorry. Boris Johnson is, you may have noticed, not one of those people. Nothing ever really appears to be his fault; if you feel it might be, it is very much on you and not on him.

See, for example, his response to professor Swaran Singh’s report into Islamophobia in the Conservative Party. Asked to comment on, among other things, his Telegraph column from 2018 in which he compared Muslim women who wear the burqa to “letter boxes” and “bank robbers”, Johnson told the inquiry:

“I do know that offence has been taken at things I’ve said, that people expect a person in my position to get things right, but in journalism you need to use language freely. [...] I am obviously sorry for any offence taken”. If you squint hard enough, you may spot a morsel of contrition.