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Boris Johnson caught in bicycle crash of an interview with Eddie Mair
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Candidate
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| Contributor | New Jerusalem |
| Last Edited | New Jerusalem Mar 24, 2013 06:24pm |
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| Category | News |
| Author | The Guardian |
| Media | Newspaper - Guardian |
| News Date | Monday, March 25, 2013 12:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | It must have seemed a good idea at the time. A 15-minute light grilling on the morning BBC sofa with whichever stand-in presenter the corporation had dredged up to fill the void left by Andrew Marr, still recovering from a stroke. Nothing that an old hand like Boris Johnson need fear.
Tousle the hair a little, some self-deprecation and a bit of a plug for the BBC TV documentary on Monday to remind the Tory backbenchers that if the ball ever popped out of the scrum, he would be on hand to take it, almost accidentally, over the line. A spot of liberal differentiation from his school chum David Cameron on the benefits of migrants might provide with him an entry to the likely story of the day, the prime minister's imminent speech on migrants and access to social housing. But after the 15 minutes of chilling inquisition by the softly spoken Eddie Mair, Johnson's reputation had taken a severe pounding. Indeed, it was probably the worst interview the mayor has ever conducted.
It was inevitably described as a car crash, but in the case of Johnson, it was more of a bicycle crash: spokes all over the road, wheels mangled and a reputation badly dented.
After the opening exchanges – "Good morning, how are you?"; "Very, very good, thank you" – Johnson went downhill at an alarming pace until by the interview's close, admitting he had "sandpapered" quotes as a Times journalist, failing to deny he lied to the party leader at the time, Michael Howard, about an extramarital affair and conceding that he had humoured an old friend when he asked for a phone number in the knowledge that the friend intended to beat up the owner of it.
By the interview's close, "You're a nasty piece of work, aren't you?" was one of Mair's more generous reflections on Johnson's integrity.
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