Boris Johnson is accused of ‘F*** the families’ rant about 7/7 terror attack victims’ relatives – but dispute breaks out about what he REALLY said in meeting about cost of inquests
- Boris Johnson is accused of an expletive laden rant about the victims’ families
- Alleged tirade was issued during a London mayoral meeting about inquest costs
- Fire Authority chief Brian Coleman said he heard Johnson and was livid with him
- Another witness has disputed the claims against the Tory leadership frontrunner
Boris Johnson is accused of ranting ‘F*** the families’ of the victims of the London 7/7 attack, but others dispute what was said at a meeting over inquests’ costs.
The alleged outburst came when the then Mayor of London was briefed over the costs of inquests into the jihadist attacks which killed 52 in July 2005.
Fire Authority chief Brian Coleman claims he overheard Mr Johnson furiously yell, ‘F*** the families! F*** the families!’
Another source confirmed Mr Coleman’s account to the Sunday Mirror, while another refuted the explosive claims against the Tory leadership front-runner.
Boris Johnson, leadership candidate for Britain’s Conservative Prime Minister, leaves home in London on Saturday – London’s Fire Authority chief Brian Coleman has made the bombshell allegation as Mr Johnson leads the Tory leadership contest
A family grieve as they stand next to a memorial to victims of the July, 2005 bus bombing near Tavistock Square on July 7, 2015
The MailOnline has called Mr Johnson’s spokesman for comment.
Mr Coleman, 57, said Mr Johnson lashed out when he told him the cost of lawyers for the Fire Authority, the Met Police and Transport for London.
Mr Johnson replied, ‘I blame Tony Blair for all this. He started it with the Marchioness,’ Mr Coleman wrote on his blog.
This supposedly a reference to inquests into the deaths of 51 revellers after the Marchioness steamer collided with a dredger on the Thames in 1989.
Fire Authority chief Brian Coleman made the explosive accusations against Mr Johnson on his blog last month
And Mr Coleman explained it was when Guto Harri, Mr Johnson’s communications officer at the time, said the inquests were for the benefit of the families that the mayor began swearing.
Mr Coleman wrote: ‘To which Boris replied, “F*** the families! F*** the families!”‘
The fire chief said he ‘snapped’ back at Mr Johnson, ‘You didn’t have to write eight letters of condolence to families of your constituents or attend the funeral of 31-year-old Lee Baisden (a Fire Authority employee) who had been blown to pieces at Aldgate and comfort his poor widowed mother.’
But on Friday, Mr Harri told the Mirror he had never heard Mr Johnson make the remark, adding, ‘It’s not the kind of thing he would say so I think it’s extremely unlikely.’
The Tory politician publicly rebuked Mr Coleman in the past after the fire chief labelled union officials ‘thick’ and ‘nasty,’ in November 2010.
Mr Coleman posted the blog last month, saying: ‘I feel moved to write with my views on Boris Johnson as it appears likely that he may well win the Conservative Leadership contest and become our next Prime Minister.’
Survivors, friends and relatives of victims walk to lay flowers at the 7/7 memorial in London’s Hyde Park on July 7, 2015
The fire chief, who says he was the first to endorse Mr Johnson’s candidature for the mayoralty, said he discovered Mr Johnson was a ‘poor judge of character.’
He cites ‘failed and pointless’ capital projects including Boris Island (the proposal for a Thames Estuary airport), the East London Cable Car and the Garden Bridge, which was scrapped in 2017 after £53million was spent.
The bombshell allegation comes as Mr Johnson finds himself streaks ahead of other candidates in the Tory leadership race which is expected to wrap up at the end of July.