On 12 October, Boris Johnson held a press conference at the Foreign Office in London with Witold Waszczykowski, his Polish counterpart. Dressed in a dark suit and looking – for him – quite smart, the Foreign Secretary stood at the lectern and recalled how the Poles had helped Britain fight “the cruellest tyrannies of the 20th century – fascism and communism”. He stressed Britain’s “unconditional and immovable commitment” to Europe’s defence and security and claimed, Brexit notwithstanding, “Today the British and Polish peoples are more closely connected than ever before.”
It took a journalist from the Polish Press Agency to puncture Johnson’s “pleasantries”. He said that a million Poles now feared for their future in Britain. They felt as if they were on the Titanic, with everyone promising to rescue them but no lifeboat in sight.
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