General election: Boris Johnson makes questionable claims during grilling on live TV and radio

Prime minister admitted government ‘have got to do better’ on the NHS

Boris Johnson took his election campaign to TV and radio studios and endured a 90-minute grilling in which he failed to reveal how many children he has, dodged questions over his “relatability” and made a string of inaccurate and dubious claims about his own record and the policies of his political rivals.

In an interview on BBC Breakfast and a phone-in on Radio 5 Live, the prime minister admitted the Conservatives “have got to do better” on the NHS in the wake of record waiting-list figures released on Thursday.

And he also looked uncomfortable when presenter Naga Munchetty asked him whether he was “relatable” as a public figure.

Insisting he had “not the faintest idea” whether voters would be able to relate to him, he said: “That’s a matter for other people – I can’t possibly say ‘I am relatable’. It seems to me the most difficult psychological question that anyone’s ever asked me.”

But he also made a series of claims which fell apart under examination.

On immigration, Mr Johnson admitted he did not know the ratio of EU and non-EU migrants coming to the UK, but his 50-50 estimate was wildly remote from the actual figures from the Office for National Statistics, which show that EU citizens make up only around 20 per cent of the total.

On crime, he claimed that as mayor of London he took 11,000 knives off the street through his stop and search policy. The Metropolitan Police has said that a total of 10,827 blades were seized as part of a crackdown at the time, but not all of them were recovered through stop and search. Earlier investigations of the claim have put the likely figure at around 4,500.

The prime minister also said the murder rate fell below 100 for “several years” while he was at City Hall. But official figures show the number of homicides in the capital dropped below that level in only one of his eight years in office.

In response to a chip shop owner from Crewe asking what Mr Johnson would do for small businesses, Mr Johnson said that when the UK left the EU “we’ll be able to cut VAT on things that we currently can’t under EU rules – sanitary products, you name it”.

But under EU law, member states are required to levy a standard VAT rate of at least 15 per cent. As the UK’s current standard rate is 20 per cent, the government could already cut VAT on many products by five per cent without falling foul of Brussels.

The EU is in the process of amending the law to allow member states to abolish VAT on women’s sanitary products.

When he was challenged over why he has not allowed the release of a parliamentary report into Russian interference in UK politics, Mr Johnson said he saw “absolutely no reason to change the normal procedures for publishing ISC reports just because there is an election coming”.

But the chairman of parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, Dominic Grieve, has made clear that the vetting process for the Russia report has already taken longer than normal.

Mr Grieve has said that the paper was finalised in March and there was “no proper reason” for it not to be laid before parliament ahead of the election. He said that the prime minister has provided “no justification whatsoever” for holding it back.

Mr Johnson also claimed that there was “no evidence” of Russian interference in UK politics. The assertion appeared to contradict predecessor Theresa May’s complaints of Moscow-backed efforts to destabilise and undermine western democracies as well as the evidence believed to have been given to the ISC by a number of witnesses.

And he raised eyebrows with his claim that he did not know how many wealthy Russian oligarchs have made significant donations to the Conservative Party, adding: “I think we have got to be very careful before we simply cast aspersions on everybody who comes form a certain country just because of their nationality.”

Liberal Democrat candidate Chuka Umunna said: “Boris Johnson can’t help himself. Being an inveterate liar is part of his make-up.

“It’s not usual procedure for Intelligence Committee reports to be delayed in this manner. Publish the report then we can judge for ourselves whether there has been interference.”

And Labour’s shadow employment rights secretary Laura Pidcock said: “Boris Johnson talked a lot but said very little other than the usual lies.

“It is a shame his relationship with the truth is not as close as the one he has with the billionaires who bankroll his party. You cannot trust a single thing he says.”

The prime minister once more repeated his claim that Jeremy Corbyn would stage a Scottish referendum in 2020 if he won office, despite the Labour leader insisting that he would not countenance a vote on independence in “the early years” of his administration.

And he recycled the widely challenged Tory claim that Labour is promising to increase spending by £1.2 trillion a year – an estimate drawn up before Mr Corbyn’s party has even finalised its manifesto.

He said that planned spending increases for the NHS were “the biggest increase in modern memory”, despite the fact that the 3.4 per cent annual real-terms rise over the next five years is lower than the 3.7 per cent average since the NHS was established.

And he told a caller that there would be no paperwork for goods travelling from Northern Ireland to the British mainland under his Brexit deal, despite his own Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay telling MPs that exit summary declaration forms would be required.

Radio 5 Live host Rachel Burden raised the topic of the prime minister’s children while discussing education, asking: “None of your children have been to state school, as I understand it?”

Johnson replied: “Sorry, I don’t comment about my children. I’m not going to comment on my children, if that’s alright.”

Burden said that people found it “odd” that he was unable even to answer the question of how many children he has, earning the response: “Your assertion that none of my children have been to state school is wrong. That’s all I’ll say.”

After official figures showed a record 4.42 million people waiting for NHS treatment, the prime minister – who has made health a key battleground in the election – said the government had to do more.

“We have got to do better, I don’t deny that,” he said.

“That doesn’t mean that I am not incredibly proud of what the NHS is achieving. We have amazing staff and amazing doctors and, yes, we need to be investing more in them. That is exactly what we are doing.”

When asked about the response to the floods in northern England and if he had done enough to support victims, Johnson said: “We’re today announcing more support for affected homes, full council tax relief for affected businesses, business rate relief, there’s a huge amount of work that has been going on round the clock.

“Of course there’s always more you can do and you can never do enough.”