Endgame: Former PM Boris Johnson weighs in on racism row from Omid Scobie’s new book | What did he say?

The fallout from a Dutch-language version of Omid Scobie’s new bombshell book about the Royal family, “Endgame,” continues this weekend with former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, offering his two cents on the race row that continues to dog two Royal members who were named in the Netherlands version of the book. That version has subsequently been pulled from shelves, but questions remain about how a small amount of text ended up “outing” the two Royal family members. 

Author Scobie insisted during an interview with BBC's “Newsnight” that no names were included in the original text and he stated that a thorough investigation will be conducted to determine how the names found their way into the Dutch edition of his book. When questioned about accountability, he responded, "The responsibility does not rest solely with me because there are individuals in this country who have acted irresponsibly, breaking the law by disclosing names that were never meant to be revealed. The book I authored, edited, and approved did not contain any names. Thus, I share the frustration felt by everyone else."

In an op-ed piece for the Daily Mail, Mr Johnson pointed out that families usually wonder what a new, unborn baby may look like, and that the question allegedly posed by the Royal family members wasn’t racist. “To ask such questions, in anticipation of a happy event, is simple human nature. It is one of the greatest joys and ­mysteries of life that we have no real idea, in utero, what our children will look like … that, I expect, was exactly the kind of ruminative debate that the so-called royal racist was having.”

The former prime minister went on to attack, in his words, “wokery and cancel culture”, which he believes is at the heart of the latest royal fiasco: “Frankly, I neither know nor care which royal said something about Archie, but I am certain that he or she was not remotely racist. It’s time to stop all this nonsense, and re-draw the distinction between the ugliness of racism and prejudice — against which we have abundant statutes — and ordinary, innocent patterns of human thought and behaviour.”

Buckingham Palace declined to comment when contacted by PA. Kensington Palace has also been approached for a comment