BORIS JOHNSON: My ‘manly pep talk’ with Harry in bid to stop Megxit – first extraordinary revelation from the political memoir of the century, serialised exclusively by the Mail
Boris Johnson made an extraordinary last-ditch bid to persuade Prince Harry not to quit the UK.
The former Prime Minister reveals in his sensational new memoir that he was asked to give the Duke of Sussex a ‘manly pep talk’ to convince him it would be a mistake to leave Britain for a fresh start abroad with his wife Meghan.
Mr Johnson’s new book, Unleashed, will be serialised in the Daily Mail from Saturday, and is already tipped to become the political memoir of the century.
He reveals that in January 2020, just weeks after his landslide election win, officials in Downing Street and Buckingham Palace believed he might be able to talk Harry out of his seismic decision to quit the UK and walk away from his royal duties.
The ex-PM writes that there was ‘a ridiculous business… when they made me try to persuade Harry to stay. Kind of manly pep talk. Totally hopeless.’
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Prince Harry and Boris Johnson on the day of the meeting in January 2020 where the former prime minister made a last-ditch bid to persuade Prince Harry not to quit the UK
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Boris Johnson made an extraordinary last-ditch bid to persuade Prince Harry not to quit the UK. Pictured are the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in March 2020 during an event in London
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Mr Johnson’s explosive new book will delve into some of his relationships with other members of the royal family. Pictured is late Queen Elizabeth II and her son, King Charles
The secret meeting, which underlines the close links between No 10 and the Palace, took place in the margins of a UK-Africa investment summit in London‘s Docklands.
It came just hours after the duke gave an emotional speech in which he said he and Meghan were leaving with ‘great sadness’ but felt they had ‘no other option’ but to step away from royal life.
The two men met for 20 minutes without aides as Mr Johnson tried to persuade the prince to reconsider.
A friend said Mr Johnson paid tribute to Harry’s efforts on the Invictus Games and praised Meghan’s work on their shared passion for promoting the education of women and girls in developing countries.
‘He thought they were a great asset to UK plc and it was a real shame they were leaving when they were doing such great work,’ the friend said.
‘It was a man-to-man conversation, they were totally alone. But Harry wasn’t for turning – he was unpersuadable by that point.
‘Boris succeeded in delivering Brexit but even he couldn’t stop Megxit.’
The following day, Harry flew to Canada to be reunited with Meghan and their son, Archie. The family later moved to Montecito, California, where they remain today, having given up their lives as working Royals.
The publication of Mr Johnson’s memoir threatens to overshadow the Conservative Party conference which gets under way in Birmingham on Sunday.
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Harry and Meghan left Britain for a fresh start abroad in 2020. The couple now live in Montecito, California
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Mr Johnson’s book will provide candid insights into his relationship with the late Queen and other members of the Royal Family, including his final meeting with the monarch in 2022
It will set out Mr Johnson’s view of the Tory machinations that forced him out in the summer of 2022. And the former PM will deliver his verdict on the record of his successors, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, while pondering whether the Tories’ crushing election defeat could have been avoided.
He promises to reveal ‘what I really think about Rishi’ and ‘how and why I learned to keep my old friend Michael Gove firmly in the wing mirror’.
In typically colourful style, he also offers to spill the beans on ‘which senior politician looks like a bullock having a thermometer shoved unexpectedly up his rectum’ and ‘how I became obsessed with the weirdly shaped nostrils of a certain prime minister’.
And he will reflect on his own political future after being cast out by his MPs and a vengeful Labour Party. In a video teaser last night, he posed the tantalising question: ‘Will I be coming back?’ adding: ‘Read the Daily Mail and find out.’
The book, which covers his years in politics, will detail the run-up to the Brexit referendum, the furious campaign and the fallout from the biggest political earthquake in a generation.
Mr Johnson will set out his reaction to David Cameron’s shock decision to resign in the wake of the Leave vote – and how his battle to succeed him collapsed when he was betrayed by his Vote Leave colleague Mr Gove.
The former PM will also describe the fights with Parliament, the courts and his own MPs as he battled to deliver on the vote to leave the EU.
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In his book Mr Johnson promises to reveal ‘how and why I learned to keep my old friend Michael Gove firmly in the wing mirror’. He is pictured with Mr Gove (right) in 2016 on the Brexit campaign trail
And he will reveal details of the tempestuous negotiations with EU leaders who feared that allowing Brexit to become a success could trigger the collapse of the whole bloc.
In a promotional video on MailOnline, Mr Johnson said French president Emmanuel Macron was ‘always personally charming’, but adds: ‘He really meant it when he said that Brexit Britain must be punished.’
Mr Johnson will also detail how his government grappled with a once-in-a-century pandemic – and tell for the first time the full story of how Covid almost killed him.
The former PM will reflect on the Partygate scandal which brought him down less than three years after winning an election that looked set to give him a decade in power.
And he will explain how he battled to persuade world leaders to rally behind Ukraine and its inspirational president, Volodymyr Zelensky, following Vladimir Putin’s invasion in 2022.
The book will provide candid insights into his relationship with the late Queen and other members of the Royal Family, including his final meeting with the monarch when he travelled to Balmoral to tender his resignation just days before she died in September 2022.
In his video clip, he said readers will also ‘discover what the Queen said to me after her incredible performance with James Bond at the 2012 Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games‘.