Boris’s daily run is the first casualty of high office

BORIS JOHNSON has given up his daily morning jog as it became an organisational nightmare.

The Prime Minister revealed going for a run is now “a major security event” and he is looking for alternative ways to keep fit during the election.

He has also had to abandon his bike, having previously being able to cycle to work when he was London Mayor and as an ordinary MP.

He said: “I ought to go on an election diet. I do my usual brutal keep-fit regime.the trouble is if you are prime minister or foreign secretary, in order to go for a run at 7am you have to deploy a hell of a lot of police and it just becomes like a major event. I’ve got to find a better way.

“My bicycle is still languishing. I don’t know where it is. Somewhere in Portcullis House [on the Parliamentary estate], I think.”

But the Prime Minister admitted that the activity he misses the most is playing rugby. As he watched England’s bruising defeat in theworld Cup – while cradling Downing Street’s rescue pup Dilyn in his arms – he told the Sunday Express that he wished he could still play the game.

This is despite the sport once being the subject of one of his famous gaffes when he was filmed barging into a school child in a mock game.

He said: “I used to love rugby. Absolutely love it. I wasn’t terribly good at it but I used to enjoy playing it hugely.”

A COMMITMENT to save free TV licences for the over-75s is set to be part of Boris Johnson’s pitch to older voters.

The Prime Minister has made it clear that if he is returned to Downing Street on December 12 he will open talks with the BBC to resolve the issue.

He told the Sunday Express: “It needs sorting out and I will be talking to the BBC about it.we need to find an answer for that.”

Mr Johnson has not hidden his irritation with the BBC for reneging on its agreement to fund free TV licences for the elderly.

The deal struck with former Chancellor

George Osborne let the BBC increase the licence fee, charge for use of its iplayer and keep non-payment of the licence as a criminal offence.

But the Corporation this year announced that it was going back on its promise.

It is understood that if the BBC does not restore the free licence the Government may redirect some of its funding to maintain the benefit for elderly pensioners.

There are also plans to stop non-payment being a criminal offence.

Picture: ANDY STENNING HOPES DASHED: Boris Johnson enjoys a run and, inset, watches rugby World Cup Final with his rescue pup Dilyn

COELACANTH are rare, large foul-tasting fish more than 100 million years older than the first dinosaurs, The “living fossils” were thought to have been long extinct until a live specimen was discovered off the coast of South Africa in 1938. The creature has thick scales previously only thought to exist in extinct fish. Just 1.5 per cent of its skull cavity has brain tissue. The plump species can grow to lengths of 6ft 6in or more and weigh 200lb – but they can cause diarrhoea when eaten. They live for more than 60 years and dwell in temperate waters in the “twilight zone,” between 500 and 800 feet beneath the surface. There are two living species – the West Indian Ocean coelacanth and the Indonesian one.