Boris Johnson accused of 'Tom Cruise tribute act' after footage emerges of him in RAF jet

Soon-to-be former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was filmed at the controls of a Royal Air Force combat jet - and people can’t stop mocking him for the apparent attempt to emulate Tom Cruise in Top Gun.

Last week, Johnson was given a demonstration of the Typhoon fighter jet at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire. This is all while the second round of voting in the ongoing Conservative leadership contest was going on.

Downing Street released a video of the prime minister at the controls of the fighter jet.

He even gave a thumbs up as he took the reins of the jet flying through the sky.

Johnson also panned the camera over, showing two other planes flying adjacent to the Royal Air Force combat aircraft.

"I hauled the joystick right the way back and we did a loop the loop," Johnson will say to business leaders at Farnborough air show, a nod to his political career and time in Number 10.

"After three happy years in the cockpit, performing some pretty difficult if not astonishing feats, I am about to hand the controls over seamlessly to someone else."

Once the video footage hit social media, people called out Johnson and pointed out how he seemed to try and embody Tom Cruise's Pete "Maverick" Mitchell from Top Gun.

“What did it cost the taxpayer to let our lame duck Prime Minister go on this joyride jolly & do his pathetic Tom Cruise tribute act? Ridiculous,” Piers Morgan tweeted.

“This narcissist has become such a national embarrassment. What is the point of this expensive, taxpayer-funded vanity project[?] He couldn't even be bothered doing his job at a Cobra meeting yet has plenty of time to take joyrides in jet. Taking the piss now,” added Arvind Hickman, the Media Editor of Campaign.

A third wrote: “Cosplaying as a pilot now? Haven't we all had enough of this man child's dressing-up routines? Just go...

"He couldn't even do his main job properly because of this constant need for attention and approval from other people.”

Someone else simply wrote: “What was the purpose of this little jolly?”

Johnson will be attending the Farnborough Airshow between 18 and 22 July in Hampshire, which is going to be one of his last public appearances as prime minister.

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