‘Boris seems affronted when criticised for what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility’: Letter from PM’s Eton classics master re-emerges despairing about his 17-year-old pupil’s ‘effortless superiority’

• The scathing report was sent from Martin Hammond to Stanley Johnson in 1982
• It rapped Boris for thinking he should be free of the obligations that bind others
• The classics schoolmaster also blasted  him for being ‘affronted when criticised’
• It comes as PM’s future hangs on knife edge over No 10 garden lockdown parties

A letter written by Boris Johnson’s classics master when he was at Eton has resurfaced saying he ‘believes it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception’.

The report, from Martin Hammond to Stanley Johnson in 1982, rapped the 17-year-old for thinking he should be free of the ‘network of obligation that binds everyone’.

The classics schoolmaster also slammed him for being ‘affronted when criticised for what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility’.

It comes as the PM’s future hangs on a knife edge as ministers pleaded with Tories MPs to wait for a probe into No 10 parties before calling for him to quit.

Mr Johnson yesterday apologised for attending a ‘bring your own booze’ party in the Downing Street garden in May 2020, during the first coronavirus lockdown.

But he insisted he believed it was a work event and could ‘technically’ have been within the rules.

The report, from Martin Hammond to Stanley Johnson in 1982, rapped the 17-year-old (pictured, when he was 15 at Eton) for thinking he should be free of the ‘network of obligation that binds everyone’

The classics schoolmaster also slammed him for being ‘affronted when criticised for what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility’. Pictured: Mr Johnson in the Commons yesterday

Mr Hammond’s letter painted a poor picture of the Prime Minister when he was a youngster.

He despaired about his pupil’s ‘effortless superiority’, excelling without apparently much effort.

He wrote: ‘Boris really has adopted a disgracefully cavalier attitude to his classical studies.

‘[He] sometimes seems affronted when criticised for what amounts to a gross failure of responsibility (and surprised at the same time that he was not appointed Captain of the school for the next half).

‘I think he honestly believes that it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception, one who should be free of the network of obligation that binds everyone else.’

Despite the intervention, Mr Johnson went on to win a scholarship to read Classics at Balliol College, Oxford.

The report has resurfaced on social media in the wake of the the PM apologising for a party in the Downing Street garden during lockdown.

Mr Johnson’s confirmation he was at the event led to four Tory MPs publicly calling for him to quit, with more privately voicing concerns about his leadership.

He pulled out of a visit to a vaccination centre in Lancashire today, where he would have faced questions about his actions, because a family member tested positive.

Cabinet minister Brandon Lewis urged people to wait for the outcome of an inquiry by senior civil servant Sue Gray before making judgments on the PM’s future.

He said: ‘The Prime Minister has outlined that he doesn’t believe that he has done anything outside the rules.

‘If you look at what the investigation finds, people will be able to take their own view of that at the time.’

Boris Johnson (pictured today) has thanked Sir Jonathan, who is also affectionately known as JVT, for his work during the pandemic. He said he wished him the ‘very best for the future’

Met Police STILL refuses to probe ‘partygate’ bash after Boris Johnson admitted he WAS there for 25 minutes but ‘implicitly’ believed it was a ‘work event’ in ‘carefully-worded’ apology 

The Met today refused once again to probe the Downing Street garden party, after Boris Johnson admitted he attended the gathering for 25 minutes but claimed he ‘implicitly’ believed it was a work event in a ‘carefully-worded’ apology.

Scotland Yard reiterated there position that it was a matter for the Cabinet Office ‘based on the absence of evidence’ and its ‘policy’ not to investigate historical lockdown breaches.

Legal experts said the PM’s phrasing was ‘carefully worded’ to suggest his actions fell within the guidance.

Adam Wagner, an expert in Covid rules at Doughty Street Chambers, said: ‘The Johnson apology was carefully worded and obviously lawyered.

‘He said that he attended because he ”believed implicitly that this was a work event”, that ”with hindsight” he should have sent everyone back inside, and ”technically” it could be said to fall within the guidance.

‘The apology – when read carefully – was to the millions of people who ”wouldn’t see it in that way”, but because he also said technically it could be said to fall within the guidance he is implicitly saying the millions of people are wrong in their interpretation.’

One leading defence lawyer said the account would be ‘laughed out of court’ in a legal case.

Cabinet ministers rallied round to defend him, but the late interventions of Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak – both tipped as potential successors – did little to instil confidence.

While Mr Johnson endured a difficult session of Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Mr Sunak spent the day away from London on a visit in Devon.

But Northern Ireland Secretary Mr Lewis told Sky News: ‘I have seen Rishi working with the Prime Minister.

‘They work absolutely hand-in-hand. I know that Rishi has got support for the Prime Minister.’

Mr Lewis insisted Mr Johnson was the right person to be Prime Minister and: ‘I think we will be able to go forward and win a general election.’

Mr Johnson faced open revolt from one wing of his party, as Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross urged him to quit, with almost all Tory MSPs supporting the call.

Mr Ross was dismissed as a ‘lightweight figure’ by Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg following his intervention.

In the House on Thursday, Mr Rees-Mogg defended his comments saying Mr Ross held office in the Conservative Party.

‘It seems to me that people who hold office ought to support the leader of the party. That is the honourable and proper thing to do,’ he said.

In Westminster, three other Tory MPs said Mr Johnson should go – Sir Roger Gale, former minister Caroline Nokes and chairman of the Public Affairs and Constitutional Affairs Committee William Wragg.

In the Commons on Wednesday the Prime Minister said he recognised ‘with hindsight I should have sent everyone back inside’ instead of spending 25 minutes in the No 10 garden thanking staff for their work on May 20 2020.

Downing Street insisted he had not been sent an email from his principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, encouraging colleagues to go to the garden for ‘socially distanced drinks’ to ‘make the most of this lovely weather’ – and urging them to ‘bring your own booze’.

Mr Johnson told MPs ‘there were things we simply did not get right and I must take responsibility’.

Mr Lewis told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the Prime Minister was ‘very, very sincere’ in his apology for what happened.

‘He does recognise the anger and upset and frustration that people feel at what they perceive happened at No 10,’ Mr Lewis said.

‘He recognises that and takes responsibility.’

Former minister Philip Dunne told Times Radio: ‘I think the Prime Minister was quite right to apologise yesterday, and I think it is right that we wait to see what the investigation from Sue Gray establishes.

‘People will then have to suffer the consequences of whatever happens.’

A YouGov poll for the Times has laid bare the scale of the damage being suffered by the government, showing the Tories slumping five points to just 28 per cent in less than a week

Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg delivered an extraordinary rebuke to Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross overnight. Mr Rees-Mogg responded to Mr Ross’s call for the PM to resign by branding him a ‘lightweight’ figure

For Labour, shadow communities secretary Lisa Nandy told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that relatives of those who died during the pandemic are ‘appalled, horrified and retraumatised’ by the events, asking how senior ministers could have been telling the country what to do during the lockdown ‘and yet they weren’t doing it themselves’.

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson’s Government suffered another blow as one of its most effective communicators during the pandemic announced his departure.

Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam is to leave his role as England’s deputy chief medical officer at the end of March.

Sir Jonathan is to take up a new role as the Pro-Vice Chancellor for the faculty of medicine and health sciences at University of Nottingham.

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