Boris Johnson portrayed as Chamberlain the appeaser in new Led By Donkeys campaign

Boris Johnson is mocked up as Neville Chamberlain over his coronavirus response. Photograph: Led By Donkeys/Twitter. - Credit: Archant

Boris Johnson has been portrayed as Neville Chamberlain – the man who was accused of appeasing the Nazis – in a new Led By Donkeys campaign.

In a video, which was projected on to the White Cliffs of Dover ahead of VE Day, the prime minister is seen mocked up as Tory party leader Neville Chamberlain for his coronavirus outbreak.

The leader, between 1937 and 1940, is best known for his foreign policy of appeasement with the belief Hitler could be satisfied by the restoration of some of Germany’s colonies ahead of World War II.

Johnson however wishes to style himself on Winston Churchill, Chamberlain’s successor, who successfully led Britain through the war and defeated the Nazis.

Led By Donkeys uses clips of the prime minister saying he was ‘shaking hands with everybody’ at the start of the Covid-19 crisis, before playing out a clip of Johnson saying a theory is you could ‘take it on the chin’.


Have your say
Send your letters for publication to The New European by emailing letters@theneweuropean.co.uk and pick up an edition each Thursday for more comment and analysis. Find your nearest stockist here or subscribe to a print or digital edition for just £13. You can also join our readers' Facebook group to keep the discussion and debate going with thousands of fellow pro-Europeans.

In other clips, Johnson is heard saying closing schools and stopping gatherings ‘doesn’t work so well’.

In another, he says ‘basically wash your hands and business as usual’, before the video shows Johnson holding a sign saying ‘highest death toll in Europe’.

It then points to a website URL – appeasement.org – which details a timeline of Johnson’s failure as prime minister in tackling the coronavirus, using key dates from a damning Sunday Times article.

While the video has been retweeted and shared by thousands in a matter of hours, some were mixed whether Chamberlain was a fair comparison.

James Brooks said: ‘He’s not even worthy of comparison with Chamberlain, let alone Churchill.’

Chris Curtis tweeted: ‘Chamberlain’s rearmament efforts were very important and actually gave Britain a fighting chance. Zero parallel in this charlatan’s planning despite the obvious threat. To compare him to this charlatan is downright wrong.’

Journalist Tim Walker wrote: ‘Very unfair to Chamberlain whose policy was naive and wrong, but he genuinely believed it would save lives. That is demonstrably not Johnson’s objective.’