Boris Johnson, surrounded by the press, gets into his car parked near the River Mersey, opposite Liverpool City Hall. In 2004 Boris Johnson, the then Tory MP and Culture Spokesman, wrote an leader article in his role as the Editor of the right wing magazine, The Spectator, in which he criticised the people of the city of Liverpool saying they 'wallowed in victimhood'. As a result he was sent to Liverpool to apologise in what was widely viewed at the time as a poorly executed PR stunt.