Stanley Johnson's praise for his PM son's visit to Ukraine misses one key point

Boris Johnson’s father Stanley praised his son’s visit to Ukraine, before saying “Europe needs to pull its socks up” - seemingly forgetting that the president of the European Commission visited Kyiv the day before Johnson arrived.

The prime minister met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last Saturday as a “show of solidarity with the Ukrainian people” following Russia’s invasion. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen met Zelensky the day before.

Speaking to LBC, former MEP Stanley Johnson said he had “no prior knowledge” of his son’s trip to Kyiv, and went on to say that he thought it was a “wonderful example of leading from the front”.

“I think at this moment you have to say Europe needs to pull its socks up.

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“I mean Germany is saying it can’t cut back on their oil imports, well why isn’t the rest of Europe coming to help Germany do this?

“I mean it is absolutely absurd this country, Ukraine, which has suffered so much, is now suffering [more]."

Johnson said that Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban is “holding the European framework up from making the right decisions”.

He added: "I say to myself, in this particular case, Brexit was probably a good idea, because Boris has been able to lead from the front here."

Social media users were quick to point out that Johnson visited the war-torn country after von der Leyen.

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