Party Animal Boris Johnson Was ‘Booed’ Out of Small Plates Restaurant Morito in Hackney

Prime Minister-on-the-ropes and party animal, Boris Johnson, might have survived last night’s challenge to his “leadership” but fresh questions about his public conduct emerged at the weekend, with the Daily Mail reporting that the beleaguered leader swore at a packed east London restaurant after being confronted by an unimpressed diner.

Morito Hackney Road was the scene of the alleged altercation one Friday lunchtime earlier this year. It is reported by both the Mail and Metro that one of Johnson’s children, his son Theo, was a waiter at the restaurant and the Prime Minister had been there not just for a selection of Mediterranean small plates and mezze for which Sam and Samantha Clark’s restaurant has earned such a stellar reputation, but also in the capacity of a “supportive dad.”

As it happens, the visit didn’t go all that smoothly, when a diner — an unofficial spokesperson for millions of fellow Britons — reportedly confronted Johnson to offer a withering appraisal of his premiership. East London being east London and decidedly unTory, the restaurant roundly applauded the diner.

Subsequently, it is reported, Johnson finished his food, got up, and left. At which point he was “booed out of the restaurant” and after which in truly petulant and / or true Churchillian fashion he offered a “dismissive hand gesture” and “flicked his finger at the customers,” according to a source quoted in the Mail. “It was horrible, it just created a nasty atmosphere,” they added.

Presumably, it was less horrible for the majority that booed.

The response to Eater from Downing Street: “No comment.”

And from Morito Hackney Road: “Absolutely no comment.”