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Boris Johnson owned by an 11-year-old boy after challenging him on history question

The Mayor of London said he was feeling 'smug' because of his degree

Heather Saul
Friday 07 August 2015 14:22 BST
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Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson (Getty)

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Boris Johnson has admitted he was shown-up by an 11-year-old boy in front of a classroom when he tried to correct him on a history answer and was proved wrong.

Johnson challenged the boy at a school in Brent, who was asked when the Roman Empire converted to Christianity and answered 312 AD.

According to Politics Home, the Mayor of London told an audience at the Centre for Social Justice think tank that he “felt a bit smug […] with all the confidence that comes from a degree in Lit Hum” and informed the child that the answer was in fact 313 AD.

The boy was insistent that he was correct however, and a quick Google search proved Johnson’s 'Lit Hum' degree was no match for this child’s knowledge of Roman history.

Perhaps Johnson should have taken a leaf out of George Osbourne’s book, who, despite being the Chancellor of the Exchequer, dodged a simple maths question posed by a seven-year-old boy live on TV, claiming he had made it a rule in life not to answer “a whole load of maths questions”.

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