Sleaze: why Boris Johnson is being reminded of the lurid scandals of 1990s Britain

By Martin Farr, Senior Lecturer in Contemporary British History, Newcastle University

The “Teflon premier” has finally encountered something that may stick: the revival of a word first heard the last time a British Conservative government entered its second decade – but with a twist that’s very much of the age of Boris Johnson.

“Sleaze” is squarely associated with the “short 1990s” – the decade before the Labour election landslide of 1997. That John Major was prime minister for seven years is widely overlooked, perhaps because he so often appeared overwhelmed, from the moment of his great…

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