‘Operation Bunter’: Police Scotland abandon name for mission to protect Boris Johnson during visit to Scotland amid fears it would offend Prime Minister

Police Scotland had to abandon a proposed codename for its mission to protect Boris Johnson during his visit north of the border, amid fears it would offend him.

Sources inside the force told The Sun that the mission was initially entitled ‘Operation Bunter’ - which some feared could draw unflattering comparisons with Billy Bunter, a pupil at the fictional Greyfriar’s School made famous in the 20th century children’s stories written by Charles Hamilton.

Bunter, depicted in illustrations - and in a 1950s television adaptation - as an overweight teenager, is regularly portrayed as greedy, lazy and deceitful.

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“Several people pointed out the foolishness of calling it after a fat, posh English public schoolboy - not least given the PM is known for being a bit portly,” the Sun’s source said.

Instead, ‘Operation Aeration’ was chosen to avoid “some sort of diplomatic incident,” they added.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Operational names are auto-generated by computer and can be changed if deemed to be inappropriate.”

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