Boris Johnson Criticized for Posing With Resignation Letter

Boris Johnson stares into the distance, his brow furrowed, a lamp softly illuminating his features and a document in front of him. The image is pensive, deliberate and staged, and somewhat unusual as political portraits go. After all, most politicians do not sit for resignation photos.

Johnson, who stepped down as Britain’s foreign secretary Monday, has come under criticism for a series of portraits taken the day of his resignation, one of which appeared on the front page of The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday. The pictures show Johnson sitting at a desk with a pen and copy of his resignation letter at the official residence of the foreign secretary.

The flamboyant politician’s departure came in protest of Prime Minister Theresa May’s moderate approach to Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, known as Brexit, and has deepened the crisis facing her government. Johnson’s political opponents quickly seized on the pictures as evidence of self-interest.

“The fact that @BorisJohnson arranged for a photo shoot of himself signing his resignation letter for the front pages tells us everything we need to know about him,” said David Lammy, a Labour lawmaker, on Twitter.

Sam Macrory, a spokesman for Open Reason, an organization run by the former deputy prime minister and Brexit opponent Nick Clegg, also chimed in.

“I’m struggling to think of another time where a Secretary of State called in the photographers to record the moment a resignation letter was signed,” he said on Twitter.

The photographer who took the pictures, Andrew Parsons, disputed Lammy’s characterization of the event as an act of vanity, and said he did not feel that the pictures were unusual in the least.

He had been near Westminster Monday, he said, and when the story of Johnson’s exit broke, he called a member of Johnson’s staff to ask if they wanted him to document the moment.

“And they said it was a good idea,” Parsons said.

The letter of resignation, he said, had “appeared” while he was in the room with Johnson. He added that Johnson had not composed it while they were in the room, and that it had been written on a computer.

“They obviously just don’t understand that things have got to be recorded,” the photographer said of Johnson’s critics. “It’s about recording history as opposed to making it a photo op.”

Sonia Purnell, the author of “Just Boris,” a critical biography of Johnson, said the photos spoke to the former foreign secretary’s ability to manipulate the media.

“I think this is where being a journalist and politician kind of collide,” she said. “He knows what will make news in a paper or on TV bulletins, he knows how that works. This is a PR man’s dream, but he’s supposed to be the foreign secretary.”

She agreed with Johnson’s political opponents that the pictures were unusual, saying she could not recall another time that a British politician had posed at a desk in such a way.

“It is quite extraordinary,” she said. “The whole thing is part of the great psychodrama around Boris, where he wants to be prime minister at all expense. People used to think he was sort of funny, amusing and witty. Now that he’s in this very important job, he turns out to be completely vacuous.”

Johnson could not be reached for comment. Calls and an email to his Parliament office went unanswered.