To his critics he’s a mini-Donald Trump. To his supporters, he’s the saviour of Brexit.
But all agree Boris Johnson is the overwhelming favourite to be the next prime minister, despite being rocked by revelations about a row with his partner Carrie Symonds and serious questions over the coherence of his Brexit strategy.
A ruthlessly efficient whipping operation, a more serious tone with a haircut to match, and long, hard hours hosting MPs in his office gained him the support of more than half the Tory parliamentary party and propelled him into the final two as the frontrunner.
But reminiscent of Trump, he has become dogged by questions about his love life and faced fierce criticism of his handling of media scrutiny.
His rival, Jeremy Hunt, even described him as a “coward” and “Boris the bottler” for dodging debates and giving far fewer media interviews than other candidates.
Voters do not usually react well to senior politicians avoiding tough scrutiny - just ask Theresa May about her decision to dodge a key election debate in 2017.
But Johnson’s supporters have, by contrast, been actively cheering his approach to the campaign and in particular his decisions to avoid an “anti-Boris” media and awkward questions.
HuffPost UK tracked down and spoke to some of Johnson’s defenders and found praise for what they saw as a cunning strategy in the context of an internal party leadership battle, but also suspicion and mistrust of journalists they feel have a personal vendetta against the ex-foreign secretary as well as a pro-EU bias.
Others felt that since the 2016 referendum, Brexit voters, similar to Trump supporters, had been treated as “far-right or fascists or thick”, that interviewers had become more opinionated, and that panels and audiences had become “stacked” with Remainers.
There was a disquiet at a perceived failure to hold those who made so-called “project fear” predictions about the impact of Brexit to account.
And those willing to speak to HuffPost UK - who were all men - cared little about the row with Symonds, despite it being so stormy that several neighbours heard it and the police were called.
It was instead seen as a “media obsession” instigated by “nosey” and “politically motivated” neighbours who passed a recording of the row to the Guardian.
While Leave voters distrusting the media is not a new phenomenon, there has rarely been a bigger backlash at a desire to ask tough questions of the next PM.
Unlike the other candidates, Johnson has refused to take part in a Channel 4 debate, a hustings for lobby journalists in Westminster, and a Sky News debate with Hunt. But hundreds have taken to Twitter to support him throughout.
Even after a patchy and belated media ‘blitz’ this week - in which he gave few details on his Brexit strategy, revealed a penchant for making model buses, and refused to answer questions about the row with Symonds - many seemed unmoved.
One of them, Brian Tomkinson, told HuffPost UK: “I have no interest in Boris’s row with his partner.
“I wasn’t surprised by the media obsession with it - it fits exactly into their anti-Boris bias.
“I have no problem with Boris not answering questions about that incident as I’m interested in policies not personalities.”
He also backed Johnson for ducking debates and the regular interviews of his rivals, complaining of a “Remain bias”.
“I don’t trust the media to question/report on Boris Johnson fairly or accurately because it is clear that most dislike him, in my opinion, because he led the Leave campaign and most of the media clearly seem to be Remainers and can’t forgive him,” Tomkinson said.
Another, Mark Haynes, described the decision of the Symonds’ neighbours, who have been castigated in sections of the media as a “left-wing Remain couple”, to pass a recording of the incident to the Guardian as “politically motivated”.
Haynes however said he believed media coverage of the row was “generally fair” as it did not lean into speculation.
But he backed Johnson’s approach of refusing to answer questions about it.
“I believe Mr Johnson has a right not to discuss his private life in public but only because there was no suggestion of any violent act or inappropriate action apart from some red wine spillage,” he said.
Haynes also said he understood that newspapers had long been slanted either left or right. But he felt mainstream TV, which could usually be relied upon for more impartial news, had become “disturbing” in its bias since the 2016 referendum vote.
“It was as if the referendum had not happened and the Brexit debate was still ongoing - phrases like soft and hard Brexit appeared, followed by phrases like crashing out and cliff edge,” he said.
“Channel 4 News became an out and out pro-Remain mouthpiece and still is closely followed by Sky News and now even the BBC.
“Remain-stacked audiences Remain-stacked panel shows, the list goes on.
“Brexit supporters were referred to as extremist or far right or fascists or thick.
“The amount and content of Brexit supporting material was minimal and by no stretch of the imagination balanced.
“I had not really experienced this phenomenon before and it was and still is disturbing. It was almost as if the media was state influenced - a scary thought.”
“It is such a visceral issue with most people that bias is starting to creep to the surface with many journalists”
Another of Johnson’s backers, who spoke using his Twitter moniker, @AnthonyJohnG, criticised the media’s coverage of the domestic row.
He said the candidate was right not to engage too much with the press because it would only prove counterproductive for what he admitted was a “gaffe-prone” candidate, and suggested it was reasonable to seek to avoid “blue on blue” internal Tory rows.
“Kennedy and LBJ all had frequent affairs and engaged in highly questionable personal behaviour, but back then the media simply refused to cover it,” he said.
“So we are left with the difficult question of, do personal ‘flaws’ merit interest from the media because they may reflect on deeper character attributes that are relevant to running the country?
“The answer to this is that if they do then why should randomness, the thickness of our walls, where we live and the political orientation of our neighbours be the factors which decide that these are revealed?”
He felt it was “healthy” when the media faced accusations of bias from the left and right as it showed “they are doing a good job”.
But he suggested that the pendulum had swung too far one way after the Brexit vote.
“I think it is such a visceral issue with most people that bias is starting to creep to the surface with many journalists,” he said.
“The constant repetition of questionable ‘fear mongering’ stories, ignoring positive stories in favour of negative ones.
“And not benchmarking people on what they said would happen if we even voted to leave, so we can gauge how much accuracy we should give their latest prognostications, all demonstrate some level of bias to me.”
Another Johnson supporter, who wished to remain anonymous, said the “whole Boris ’domestic incident’ stinks to high-heaven” and said it was “perfectly clear” that the neighbours were “politically active, anti-Tory and anti-Brexit”.
“Personally, I think Boris is right to refuse to answer questions on the incident, the police had already cleared him of having anything to answer; if he did, he’d give carte blanche to the MSM (mainstream media) to question him on a daily basis on his private life.”
He also attacked the broadcast media because they felt its history of impartiality had become tarnished.
“It’s become apparent in recent times, particularly in television news coverage of politics, that reporters and editors are more than happy to reveal their own particular views when interviewing politicians.
“I’m old enough to remember when this was strictly verboten, and can only think of one or two elder journalist/presenters who refrain from doing this today, which in my view leads to those news organisations being less respected and believable.”
The supporter said he saw “little advantage” in Johnson engaging with the media as much as his runners-up, when it is Tory voters who will crown him as the next PM - exactly the calculation made by his team.