BORIS Johnson yesterday launched his “Back Boris” campaign to become leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the UK. Due to space restrictions at the venue, many interested parties could not be present to have their questions about Mr Johnson answered.

As a public service, and in response to criticism that the UK’s new PM will be selected by the electoral equivalent of one man and his dog, we present the following quiz, titled: “If the answer is ‘Back Boris’, what is the question?”

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Q: I would like to see an end to mushy videos that enlist a politician’s family in a candidate’s fight for office. Any ideas?

A: Back Boris. On Tuesday, Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary and one of Mr Johnson’s rivals, released a film about growing up as the poor but ambitious son of a migrant who had arrived in the UK with just £1 in his pocket. Featured in the piece were Mr Javid’s adoring children and cute if noisy dog, Bailey.

Mr Johnson, twice married, has a complex personal life that would not lend itself easily to a two-minute film. He would need at least a trilogy, with arrowed diagrams, not to mention an 18-certificate.

Q: What’s the quickest way to disunite the United Kingdom?

A: Back Boris. Although he paid tribute yesterday to the nations of the UK, calling them “the awesome foursome”, it is generally accepted that Mr Johnson, complete with tax plan to make the better off richer, would be the best thing for Scottish independence since the Weirs won £161m in the Euromillions draw.

Not everyone thinks so. According to Ross Thomson, Conservative MP for Aberdeen South, Boris is popular in Scotland. In his blog this week, Mr Thomson wrote: “There is a political narrative that’s being perpetuated in Scotland by the twitterati and the chattering classes that Boris isn’t quite right in Scotland or is just plain unpopular. It’s nonsense. Much like the mythical Loch Ness monster – heard about often but wanting in hard evidence. The same people said the same thing when he ran for Mayor of London ‘a Labour city’.”

When he came to Aberdeen, wrote the MP, the response was entirely positive. “He has an edge that I have seen no other politician possess. The clamour for selfies and people just wanting to meet him showed just how broad Boris’s appeal is. The comments that he is loathed, as an interloper in hostile territory, were just false.” So there.

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Q: I would like to repeat the experiment, conducted in 2016 in the US, in which someone the media say is unelectable makes it to the highest office in the country. First move?

A: Back Boris. At his launch yesterday he took just six questions from the press. Almost every one directly queried his fitness for office. His responses were long, rambling, and therefore difficult to edit into anything approaching a clear answer. At one point, his Tory MP supporters in the room booed the question from Sky News's political editor, Beth Rigby. Get set for more of this.

Q: I’m missing Eddie Mair since he moved to LBC. How can I see more of him?

A: Back Boris. Mair’s 2013 interview with Mr Johnson, then Mayor of London, in which the Scot accused him of being a “nasty piece of work”, was the gold standard in pinning down the would-be PM. As such, expect to see clips from it again.

Q: I am a great if lonely admirer of Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard, but the plucky Yorkshireman just cannot catch a break. How can I help?

A: Back Boris. A Boris premiership, in being disastrous for the fortunes of the Scottish Conservatives, could see Labour bounce back to second place in the Scottish Parliament. Then again, should Mr Johnson provoke the Scottish Conservatives into seeking a divorce, the newly reinvented party might receive a boost.

Q: I believe there is not quite enough division in British society. In particular, the class war has been forced to take a back seat to the Leavers-Remainers dispute. How can I ignite it again?

A: Back Boris. Mr Johnson, the product of Eton and Oxford, might have been designed to confirm that privilege still rules the roost in modern Britain. Should the final two candidates turn out to be Mr Johnson and Sajid Javid, formally backed yesterday by Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, class will play a central part in the campaign. If it worked for working class Ruth in Scotland, says the playbook, it will do the same for Mr Javid. Yet while he had a lot of catching up to do on the income front, the MP reportedly earned millions during his banking career and is probably now richer than his opponents. One estimate puts Mr Johnson’s wages, largely from his journalism and speaking engagements, at upwards of £350,000 a year.

Q: I cannot wait to see the UK released from the EU’s shackles and be free to make friends and trading partners all over the world. How can that be guaranteed?

A: Don’t back Boris. Apologies for the departure from the norm, but Mr Johnson yesterday was at pains to talk up his successes during his eight years as Mayor of London. Of more pertinence to doing the job of PM are the two years he spent as Foreign Secretary, during which he lost friends and failed to influence people. One of his Ministers, Alan Duncan, said this week he was once asked what it was like being Mr Johnson’s “pooper-scooper”. He told Today: “Cleaning after him was quite a full-time activity.”

Q: I’m losing the will to live. How do we make all this end?

A: Back Boris. He is never going to stop until he gets the job and makes a pig’s ear of it. Even then ...