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Johnson shared a selfie from the set of the ITV programme. Twitter/BorisJohnson
not so camera shy

Boris Johnson appears on ITV's This Morning despite ongoing row over BBC interview

Johnson appeared on the daytime programme with Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby.

AMID THE ONGOING row over whether Boris Johnson will do an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Neil, the UK Prime Minister today appeared on ITV’s This Morning programme. 

Johnson appeared on the daytime programme with Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby and answered questions about the NHS and Brexit. 

He also spoke about reality TV show I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, suggesting he could “eat the funny stuff” on the programme. 

Johnson has not agreed to a sit down interview with Neil despite each of the other party leaders doing so.

The BBC had initially said that Johnson would not be allowed to go on its Andrew Marr Show unless he also agreed to face Andrew Neil, but the BBC backed down following last week’s London Bridge terror attack.

In an article in The Guardian defending the broadcaster’s impartiality yesterday, the BBC’s director of news and current affairs Fran Unsworth suggested there has been an issue with “pinning down” a time for Johnson to do the Neil interview.

Today, however, Johnson appeared on ITV’s This Morning programme after Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn appeared on it yesterday.

Asked about whether he was trustworthy, Johnson said there was “a big trust issue with the whole of politics at the moment”. Something he put down to Brexit not being a reality. 

“I think that that is basically because after three and a half years, we haven’t got done what we told the people we would do,” he said. 

We asked them to vote in the EU referendum, they did deliver a result. And then, for the last two and a half, three and a half years, we’ve been just wrangling, and I got to the stage as Prime Minister when it was obvious that we couldn’t get this thing through parliament.

Schofield questioned Johnson on the private sector’s involvement in the NHS and on US companies providing beds for patients in the UK. 

In response, Johnson claimed “that the biggest privatisation of the NHS took place under Labour”.

“I go to around hospitals, which are saddled with debt, they have to pay back to banks at excruciating rates, because of the Labour’s PFI deal,” he said. 

Willoughby suggested that Johnson could follow in his father’s footsteps and appear on I’m A Celebrity.

As the interview concluded and Willoughby was doing a link to the next segment, she said: “The race to be prime minister isn’t the only important voting happening right now.”

Schofield said: “Who will be king or queen of the jungle?” and then in a nod to the Prime Minister added: “There’s always that if it goes wrong.”

Willoughby said: “Following in your father’s footsteps…”

Johnson replied: “He did brilliantly. I think I could certainly do the eating the funny stuff. But he was absolutely amazing.”

 

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