Peter Oborne has long been in the business of exposing political lies. In 2005, he wrote The Rise of Political Lying, which traced the worrying tendency toward deceit which began in the Major years and became a par for the course under New Labour.

In his latest book, The Assault on Truth, Oborne turns his eye to Boris Johnson (and to a lesser degree Donald Trump).

Despite his condemnation of Johnson’s new “nightmare epistemological universe”, Oborne admits to a certain admiration for the man.

While working alongside then-editor Johnson at the Spectator, Oborne notes Johnson’s quick mind and complexity of thought, and calls him “the most brilliant political journalist of his generation.” These semi-decent asides, if anything, sharpen the critique. At times it is like a confession, Oborne showing a sense of guilt for being taken in by Johnson. Hence the sternness of the critique?

Of all the liars that Oborne has encountered in his 30-year career, he writes, “I have never encountered a senior British politician who lies and fabricates so regularly, so shamelessly and so systematically as Boris Johnson.”

Oborne traces Johnson’s relationship with lies from his early days in reporting, detailing the first two seemingly inconsequential fibs that cost Johnson his first job at the Times, to the oft-repeated promise of 40 hospitals during the 2019 election campaign, fastidiously …