Reg Hansell wrote:He's fathered a love child and had three affairs, but the British public still loves Boris Johnson
Poll shows three in four voters unfazed by London mayor's antics
Even accounting for Britain's rapidly changing moral standards, the disclosure that a politician
fathered a child outside of marriage would generally be a serious setback to their career.
Unless, of course, that politician is Boris Johnson, whose Teflon-like ability to shrug off political,
personal and sexual controversy is underlined by a ComRes poll for The Independent.
By a majority of more than five to one, voters say his fathering of a child as the result of an extramarital
affair would not affect whether they would vote for him.
The result will be a relief to his admirers, after a court ruled last week that the public had a right to
know about the three-year-old daughter he fathered with the art consultant Helen Macintyre, below.
This followed the exposure nine years ago of an affair with Petronella Wyatt, which resulted in an abortion
nd a miscarriage.
So what all five of my grandchildren were fathered outside of marriage, it is good to see that the vast majority of voters know what is really important unlike some newspapers and out of date muckrakers.
