Boris Johnson - en bluff?

The EU has accused UK leadership hopeful Boris Johnson of fake news over his complaint that "Brussels bureaucrats" made life hard for smoked herring sellers. It emerged that the rules were made by the UK, and not the EU.

A claim that EU bureaucracy harms the UK's smoked fish trade was flatly rebuffed on Thursday, when the European Commission pointed out the rule was set by Britain.

In a last-ditch pitch to win votes in his bid to become Britain's next prime minister, leadership hopeful Boris Johnson took a swipe at EU health and safety rules. Holding aloft a kipper — a type of smoked herring beloved as a breakfast food by many Brits — Johnson railed against rules he attributed to Brussels.
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"After decades of sending kippers like this through the post, he has had his costs massively increased by Brussels bureaucrats, who have insisted that each kipper must be accompanied by this," he said, brandishing a "plastic ice pillow."

However, Johnson's account was disputed by the European Commission, which stressed that the rules had been set by the UK.

"The case described by Mr. Johnson falls outside the scope of the EU legislation and it's purely a UK national competence," Anca Paduraru, the EU Commission's spokeswoman for health and food safety, told a press briefing on Thursday.

"There are strict rules when it comes to fresh fish but these kinds of rules don't apply to processed fishery products — I'm talking about the temperature and the exact case that he was explaining."