Boris Johnson interview live: Ex-prime minister says he regrets apologising for Partygate in ITV grilling
Comes as Sir Keir Starmer faces backlash over Chagos Islands deal with protest planned
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Boris Johnson has said he regrets apologising for the so-called partygate scandal over lockdown-era gatherings in Downing Street in a new interview.
Facing a grilling on ITV tonight, the former prime minister claimed the move had “inadvertently validated the entire corpus” as accusations were also levelled at officials who were “working very hard”.
He went on to defend the revellers, insisting that he does not think officials involved in the Westminster scandal “thought they were setting out to break the rules”.
Meanwhile, Sky News’s political editor Beth Rigby announced she has pulled out of an interview with Mr Johnson at the Cheltenham Literature Festival after being told she could not make a recording or transcript of the talk, marking the second interview the former Tory MP has lost this week.
It comes as a group of indigenous Chagossians, Chagossian Voices, planned to stage a protest in Westminster, claiming they have been “consistently and deliberately ignored” by the UK government over discussions surrounding the handover of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, The Independent understands.
Sir Keir Starmer has defended the government’s decision in the face of significant backlash, claiming that the UK-Mauritius deal ensures continued security of the US-UK Diego Garcia military base.
Boris Johnson refuses to say whether he regrets apology to Queen over party on eve of Prince Phillip’s funeral
Diego Garcia blame game deepens as Liz Truss hits out at Boris Johnson for island ‘surrender’
Boris Johnson’s Unleashed: A memoir that’s twisted, sour and full of yet more lies
Boris Johnson claims bugging device found in his bathroom after Netanyahu visit
Argentina says it will take ‘full sovereignty’ of Falklands after Chagos Islands return
Full story: Broadcaster pulls out of Boris Johnson interview after no recording allowed
Sky News political editor Beth Rigby said she has pulled out of an interview with former prime minister Boris Johnson at the Cheltenham Literature Festival after being told she could not make a recording or transcript of the talk.
Mr Johnson had promised to “reveal what really happened during my time as Mayor, Foreign Secretary and PM” during the interview, as he promotes his new memoir titled Unleashed to be published next week.
It comes after an interview with the BBC was dropped earlier in the week after presenter Laura Kuenssberg mistakenly sent him her briefing notes.
Ellie Iorizzo reports:
Broadcaster pulls out of Boris Johnson interview after no recording allowed
It comes two days after the BBC cancelled an interview with the former prime minister after presenter Laura Kuenssberg mistakenly sent him her notes.
Boris Johnson reveals Covid battle was worse than he let on to public
Boris Johnson made desperate plea for book sales – and did not rule out a return to politics
Boris Johnson made desperate plea for book sales during the interview.
He said his memoir Unleashed was now “unleashed in all bookshops”.
And he started looking around the TV studio asking “where is Unleashed?”, presumably so he could hold it up for the cameras.
On a possible return to politics, he said: "My chances of returning to politics, as I think I've said before, are about as good as me being reincarnated as an olive, blinded by a Champagne cork, locked in a disused fridge or decapitated by a frisbee."
Which is not a no.
EXCLUSIVE | Diego Garcia blame game deepens as Liz Truss hits out at Boris Johnson for island ‘surrender’
Former prime minister Liz Truss has hit back at claims that she was responsible for the UK losing the crucial Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean and claimed it was Boris Johnson’s fault.
An extraordinary row broke out yesterday when Keir Starmer’s government announced it was handing the islands to Muritius in a deal which guarantees the UK military air base on Muritius for at least 99 years.
Our political editor David Maddox has the full exclusive below:
Liz Truss blames Boris Johnson for Diego Garcia airbase island ‘surrender’
Exclusive: Labour said they had no choice but to sign the deal because of the legal mess left by the Tories
Boris Johnson declines to explicitly endorse Tory leadership frontrunner Robert Jenrick
Boris Johnson has declined to explicitly endorse Tory leadership frontrunner Robert Jenrick.
It was put to him that he supported a referendum on leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and so he would likely back Mr Jenrick, the only candidate to advocate for leaving the convention.
Mr Johnson replied: “I think there’s probably some logical fallacy you’ve just committed.”
He also said Donald Trump had not been telling the truth when he claimed to have won the 2020 election.
In a quickfire round of questions during his ITV interview, the former prime minister refused to say who he hoped to win the upcoming vote out of Kamala Harris and the Republican candidate.
Asked whether the former president was telling the truth when he claimed to have won the 2020 election, Mr Johnson said: “No.”
He would not say who he thought had been a better prime minister out of Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss, insisting they “both had good qualities and they both had their share of bad luck”.
Gavin Williamson blocked release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Johnson claims
Sir Gavin Williamson blocked a £400 million deal to bring Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe home from Iran five years before she was released on the basis the money could be used by Hezbollah, Boris Johnson has said.
The former prime minister claimed that, in 2017, he reached an agreement paving the way for the UK national’s release in return for money owed by Britain to Tehran since the 1970s.
The Treasury and the Foreign Office approved, but Number 10 insisted the decision needed to be signed off by all relevant departments, including the Ministry of Defence.
Read the full story here:
Gavin Williamson blocked release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Johnson claims
The former prime minister claimed Sir Gavin vetoed an agreement he had reached with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani in 2017.
Watch: Boris Johnson says he still believes in Brexit
Johnson does not rule out return to politics
Boris Johnson has not ruled out a return to British politics.
At the end of his interview with ITV’s Tom Bradby to promote his new memoir Unleashed, it was put to the former prime minister whether he believed his political career to be over.
The former Tory MP said he is currently living a life of “blameless obscurity, rustic obscurity” but was not drawn on the interviewer’s question, saying: “The answer to your question is to be found in the 738 pages of Unleashed.”
Mr Bradby responded, “I’ll take that as a return is possible,” to which Mr Johnson offered no denial.
Boris Johnson defends Partygate revellers
Boris Johnson has defended Partygate revellers.
He said he does not think that officials involved in the Westminster partygate scandal "thought they were setting out to break the rules".
The former prime minister told ITV News: "I really, really don't think that those officials thought that they were setting out to break the rules... they were working round the clock and they thought they were within the framework."
Repeatedly pressed on why he regrets apologising for the scandal and whether he understands the scale of public anger, he said: "Of course I understand it and you can't say that I haven't been exposed over the last few years to the full force of people's anger and indignation."
Johnson squirms responding to claim he’s ‘worst prime minister in British history'
Boris Johnson squirmed as he responded to the claim made by the unofficial biographer of prime ministers that his premiership was the worst of all time.
ITV’s Tom Bradby put to the former Tory MP that author Anthony Seldon “says you’re the worst prime minister in British history” – even worse than Liz Truss’s, whose catastophic tenure ended after just 49 days.
A visibly uncomfortable Mr Johnson responded: “I don’t know this guy very well, but that’s complete nonsense. I think you’ll find a pretty extraordinary story in three years.”
He went on to reel off what he saw as his government’s achievements of Brexit and supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
“Not only did we deliver freedom and independence for our own country,” he said. “We were essential in protecting another European country from having it’s own freedom and independence extinguished.”
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