Boris Johnson is the boy who cried wolf – no wonder nobody’s listening to him about coronavirus

The prime minister has a track record of dishonesty – now that it matters, people don’t trust him

Boris Johnson excels at spreading falsehoods; he’s the Lionel Messi of it. Given the silky skills he’s displayed at spinning bulls***, you’d think he’d be able to impart a simple truth when the nation desperately needs him to. He appears to be struggling.

The government’s exhortations to stay at home have been nowhere near clear enough. He’s part of the reason for that. At the weekend, for example, the prime minister said he “hoped” he would be able to see his mother on Mother’s Day; only later did Downing Street clarify that their meeting would be held via Skype.

Muddying the waters like this is extremely unhelpful when the country needs as many people as possible to heed the official advice in order to limit the spread of a startlingly vicious pathogen.

But would people listen to Johnson if he were clearer? If he adopted the tactics of the Tory general election campaign, and traded his mendacious “Get Brexit Done” for the truthful “Stay At Home”?

This is open to question because when it comes to moral authority, Johnson’s cupboard is bare.

He swept to power by telling half the country that the other half didn’t count, all while lying through his teeth.

The angry Downing Street response to allegations in the Sunday Times about what his sinister svengali Dominic Cummings did or did not say in relation to Covid-19 strategy – “apparent quotes from meetings which are invented” – is richly ironic. Johnson was fired from its sister paper, The Times, over allegations that he fabricated a quote from his godfather, the historian Colin Lucas, for a front-page article about the discovery of Edward II’s Rose Palace.

“It really is incredibly unfair for people to go and socialise the way we have seen because by helping to spread the virus they slow down our ability to stop it and that means all these measures are going to have to be in place for longer,” health secretary Matt Hancock said in a TV interview. Indeed so, because even if you think you’re clear of symptoms, you can’t be sure. And if you’re wrong, you could infect an awful lot of people, who might be vulnerable and mightn’t survive contact with you.

Professor Hugh Montgomery summed it up superbly for Channel Four’s Dispatches. Government spin doctors: please take note. He said that if you have it, you’re going to infect three people on average. Go through the cycle ten times and you get to 59,000 people.

Montgomery is a clever man. But you don’t need a truckload of degrees to understand what he’s saying.

“Believe in Britain,” Johnson has exhorted us. The events of the last few days suggest Britain needs to take a long, hard look at itself. The picture being painted isn’t a pretty one. Too many people are showing a criminally reckless disregard for the lives of others.

Once again, should that come as a surprise, given the character of our leaders? The people occupying the most important offices in the land have, at times, shown a disregard for the people they rule over that itself borders on a criminally reckless, and what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. When it comes to setting an example, theirs have invariably been bad.

It’s been said in some quarters, including by my esteemed colleague John Rentoul, that faced with the current crisis, the same strategy would have been followed, whomever the prime minister. I have to say, I’m not convinced. What I am convinced of is that Johnson has failed to show the requisite leadership, and he’s not alone. This needs to change – and quickly. It isn’t a game any more. It never was.