Miriam Margoyles explains exactly why she ‘hates’ Boris Johnson: ‘He’s f****d about with my life’

Actress, lesbian icon and national treasure Miriam Margoyles has explained why she “hates” former UK prime minister Boris Johnson.

The 82-year-old The Age of Innocence actor has never been one to mince her words when it comes to her thoughts and opinions, whether that’s when she’s calling Monty Python’s John Cleese “a puny tadpole of a person,” or disclosing her penchant for “sucking off” soldiers during her youth.

While much of what she says is hilarious, there’s often a political undertone, too. Last year, she was caught calling the UK’s current chancellor Jeremy Hunt a “b*****d” while live on air on BBC Radio 4. 

She’d realised that Hunt had just been in the seat she was in before she’d been interviewed by the broadcaster. Believing she was off air, she said: “When I saw him there, I said, ‘You’ve got a hell of a job, best of luck.’ What I really wanted to say was, ‘F**k you, you b*****d’ but you can’t say that.”

In a new and wide-ranging interview with The Guardian, Margoyles has now taken aim at another of the powerhouses of Britain’s Conservative Party, former prime minister Boris Johnson – and his dad, Stanley Johnson.

“One of the reasons I hate Boris Johnson so much is because he’s f****d about with my life,” she explained, casually. She shared that one of her goals now is to live with her partner of 54 years, Heather Sutherland, as despite their long relationship, they have never cohabited.

The pair bought a house together in Tuscany in 1973, and their hope is to live their together.

“Brexit means we can’t be in the house I bought 50 years ago for longer than 90 days in every 180. Brexit is an appalling catastrophe. A deliberate appalling catastrophe for which the Tories should fry in hell,” she declared, subtle as ever.

When Britain left the EU in 2020 under Boris Johnson’s premiership, the country’s citizens also left behind their right to freedom of movement within the EU.

Now, British citizens can only live in Italy and other EU countries for up to 90 days, unless they are granted a permanent residency visa. Before being granted permanent residence, they must first have reason to be granted a temporary residence visa, and have to live in the country for five years.

As well as taking aim at the newspaper columnist turned prime minister turned newspaper columnist, Harry Potter star Miriam Margoyles also took a swipe at his former politician father, Stanley Johnson.

The pair appeared on BBC’s travel series The Real Marigold Hotel in 2018.

“Most men are a**eholes – not all, and the young ones are better,” she shared frankly, before explaining that Stanley Johnson is, in her eyes, “a complete a**ehole”.

“I had to live with him for a week in a programme called The Real Marigold on Tour,” she explained. “We went to St Petersburg. Sheila Ferguson, Wayne Sleep and the wonderful Bobby George who is a Tory, a working-class Tory, but a diamond.”

While George might be one Tory she can tolerate, Stanley Johnson is a whole other kettle of fish.

“It was a real eye-opener that he could be as rude, as scornful, as selfish as he was,” she shared.

“He was utterly disgusting and shameful, and I have no qualms about saying so.”

Miriam Margoyles new book Oh Miriam!: Stories from an Extraordinary Life is out on 14 September.