Prime Minister Boris Johnson called Portsmouth 'too full of drugs, obesity, and underachievement' - and then said he 'loved' the city

While the city boasts fantastic shopping at Gunwharf Quays, a stunning seaside vista from Southsea, and nationally-important heritage the Historic Dockyard, Boris Johnson used a magazine article to summarise the city as being ‘too full of drugs, obesity, underachievement and Labour MPs’.

Then MP for Henley, the future prime minister made the judgement as part of a GQ article in 2007 – while he was ‘test driving’ a chauffeur driven limo on his way to meet University of Portsmouth students.

Struggles with abstinence, weight loss, and fulfilling potential may be seen like a natural fit for Mr Johnson, who presided over a boozy culture at 10 Downing Street during the pandemic and declared himself as ‘too fat’ as he launched an anti-obesity campaign that would have a slim future.

But the Conservative MP – who regularly appeared on satirical BBC show Have I Got News For You – also found Portsmouth overly down-beat and dilapidated, calling it ‘one of the most depressed’ cities in the south.

Thankfully journalists from The News – mostly trim, occasionally sober, and always happy to skewer any deserving politician – swung to Portsmouth’s defence, outlining the ten best things about the great waterfront city.

And the boss of a tourism firm offered to take Mr Johnson – who claims to enjoy making model busses to relax – on a tour of Portsmouth’s sights from the top of a red double decker bus.

But a Conservative Party spokesman said he would not take up the offer as he was skiing in the south of France with his then-wife Marina Wheeler and their children.

In 2009 during a bid to become the MP for Gosport, former MEP and father to the prime minister Stanley Johnson saw there could be some confusion caused by his son’s hurtful remarks, clarifying the statement by adding: ‘Whatever Boris may have said about Portsmouth you can take it from me that he didn’t intend any derogatory remarks about Gosport.’

But in June 2019, Boris Johnson attempted to heal the hurt feelings as he campaigned to become Conservative Party leader and prime minister, with a visit to the Queen’s Hotel in Southsea where he declared: ‘I love Portsmouth.’

Commenting on his words just over a decade prior, he said: ‘It’s all nonsense.’

But it was nonsense with a lot of sense to it, according to Mr Johnson, who then attempted to defend his remarks.

He added: ‘I said about Portsmouth that there was too much drugs, obesity, and underachievement. And there is. It’s a statistical fact. Why shouldn’t I be allowed to say that?’

In 2007, the time of his curt comments, Portsmouth had the third highest level of deprivation and the fifth highest crime rate in the whole of the south east of England.

Three years later, the constituency of Portsmouth North would cast out previous Labour MP Sarah McCarthy-Fry and install Conservative candidate Penny Mordaunt as MP, as her party took power in Westminster.

Meanwhile the city council would go from no overall control to a Liberal Democrat holdout between 2009 to 2014, before falling back into no overall control with a Conservative Party administration from 2014 to 2019.

Despite the changes in political outlook, the city continued to struggle with drugs and obesity, with a drug death rate more than twice as high as the national average between 2016 and 2018, while 66 per cent of adults in Portsmouth were classed as overweight or obese in 2019.

Given the city’s shifting political landscape and his previous tactless attempt at truth-telling, Boris Johnson decided to play it safe during his 2019 visit, appealing to the city’s largest following: Pompey FC.

A reconciliatory Mr Johnson posed with a Pompey shirt and insisted he was a ‘true blue’ as staunch Pompey supporter, Malcolm Drew, asked the Tory would become an ‘honorary fan’.

‘I would love to,’ Mr Johnson said.

And in a further bid to woo support from Portsmouth, the former London mayor added: ‘This is a fantastic city and what I want to do is to try and bring our country together in a way that we were able to bring London together.’

Mr Johnson then returned to the city for a tour – featuring not a bus, but an aircraft carrier, as the prime minister posed in the cockpit of a F-35 jet onboard the Royal Navy’s new flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth.

As removal vans make ready to arrive at Downing Street, Mr Johnson may want to settle down closer to his honorary football club and the thrilling sight of Royal Navy warships sailing past the city.

But with Portsmouth North MP Penny Mordaunt riding high as the bookies favourite to take on his old job, maybe Southampton is close enough for comfort.