560 complain after PM told: ‘Stop talking’

THE controversial radio broadcast where Boris Johnson was told to ‘stop talking’ by BBC host Nick Robinson sparked hundreds of complaints.

The corporation revealed yesterday it received 558 objections on the grounds of bias over Radio 4’s Today show last week. During the tense exchange, Mr Robinson also told the Prime Minister ‘you are going to pause’ as the pair talked over each other.

MPs criticised the interview as ‘downright rude’ and ‘slapstick’ while Tory co-chairman Oliver Dowden said politicians ‘have the right to finish a sentence’. The BBC also received 376 complaints of bias over TV politics host Andrew Marr’s earlier interview with the PM.

The BBC said of the Robinson interview: ‘There was certainly no desire to appear rude and, post-broadcast and on reflection, Nick Robinson himself would have preferred to have used different language.’