Ex Prime Minister Boris Johnson has paid tribute to the “heroes” who died in the Titan submersible tragedy in his second Daily Mail column. In a 1,200-word article, the former prime minister wrote: “(Hamish) Harding and his friends died in a cause — pushing out the frontiers of human knowledge and experience — that is typically British, and that fills me with pride.”
He hit out at the “Leftie Twittersphere” he said was “awash with criticism” about the trip to the Titanic before the news of the implosion. Mr Johnson argued the “mission was so important” it “should be valued by left-wingers as well as everyone else”. “Yes, there were risks, and warnings. But every great advance must inevitably involve experiment, and equipment that can seem, in retrospect, dangerously inadequate.”
Mr Johnson’s appointment as a columnist for the newspaper was ruled a “clear breach” of ministerial rules by Whitehall’s anti-corruption watchdog last week. The column gives him a platform to take shots at Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with whom he has been publicly clashing, although he has so far held back, using his first one to detail how a weight-loss drug did not work well for him.
Tributes have since been paid to the Titan submersible passengers and pilot, with the families of Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman, and Hamish Harding describing them as “beloved” and “dedicated” fathers and sons.
OceanGate Expeditions’ chief executive Stockton Rush and French national Paul-Henri Nargeolet were also confirmed to have died in the incident.
Downing Street has said that Rishi Sunak’s thoughts are with the loved ones of the victims of the missing Titan submersible, which is believed to have imploded while attempting to visit the Titanic wreckage. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “His thoughts are very much with the loved ones of those who have died in this tragic incident and they have been through an unimaginably difficult ordeal in the last few days.
“FCDO are in touch with those families to provide support.”
