‘Questions of trust make my blood boil’
BORIS JOHNSON has said questions about his trustworthiness which have dogged his General Election campaign make his “blood boil”.
The Prime Minister was judged to be less trustworthy than his rival Jeremy Corbyn by a margin of 38% to 48% in a snap poll after the two leaders sparred in a TV debate on Friday.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Mr Johnson revealed his fury at the question which has dominated his campaign – and blamed deadlock in Parliament for his failure to deliver on his Halloween Brexit pledge.
“It was infuriating that I couldn’t deliver Brexit on October 31. But that was because Parliament passed a law, which was a constitutional innovation and abomination... forcing me to break my promise,” he told the paper.
“And so, when people talk about whether I can be trusted, it makes my blood boil because it was they that forced the Government to break its promise.
“They passed a law to stop it happening. And then they had the cheek to try to blame the Government. I think it’s absurd.”
Andrew Neil tore into him earlier this week for refusing to commit to an interview on his BBC show, telling viewers he wanted to put “questions of trust” to the PM.
Mr Johnson was previously laughed at by audience members in an ITV debate when he said the truth matters in the election.
On Friday night Mr Johnson and Mr Corbyn were involved in a series of acrimonious exchanges over racism and anti-Semitism in the final televised debate of the campaign.
With less than a week left to polling day on Thursday, the two men traded accusations of a “failure of leadership” on one of the key issues inover the campaign.
A snap YouGov poll of 1,322 viewers following the debate narrowly gave victory to Mr Johnson by 52% to 48%.
Both sides will be relieved to have avoided any major slip-ups in the hour-long confrontation before a live BBC studio audience in Maidstone.
But with the Tories continuing to lead in the polls overall, they are likely to be the happier with the outcome.