It has been described by one commentator as the ‘worst interview by a politician ever’.
And after a recent general election characterised by disastrous interviews that is a pretty bold statement.
But then I can’t remember any presenters becoming so exasperated they resorted to asking the spokesperson to answer the questions ‘in the order I am asking them’.
The interview in question saw Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson stumble his way through answering questions about the Queen’s speech in 10 minutes of excruciating radio on Wednesday (21 June).
Mr Johnson was being interviewed by Eddie Mair on the PM programme (click here and forward to 26 mins to listen).
It started badly and got steadily worse.
He began floundering on the very first question and listeners could hear a desperate rustling of papers and a plea to ‘hang on a second’ as he searched for information.
In his response to just the third question a clearly struggling Mr Johnson said ‘and to get back to your first question’ and a frustrated Mr Mair interrupted: “It’s not a Two Ronnies sketch – you can’t answer the question before last.”
After such a dreadful start, you may have thought things could only get better. They didn’t.
Mr Johnson found himself faltering again as he tried to evade a question on what the ‘point of the Prime Minister’ was if she did not have policies to tackle any of the ‘burning injustices’ she had identified when she first came to power.
He failed to answer the question four times, but Mr Mair persevered – something we tell delegates on our media training courses that journalists will do if they feel questions are being ignored.
Mr Johnson eventually offered the following hesitant sounding response: “The point of the Prime Minister is to lead the country, to give a…er..lead on key issues… and to take this Queen’s Speech through. And she will, and she will do a great job.”
It was former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott who took to Twitter to describe Mr Johnson’s performance as ‘the worst interview by a politician ever’.
THE worst interview by a politician EVER. I expect @BBCNews & @itvnews will cover it & it'll be in every newspaper 🤔 pic.twitter.com/k2id2nk8DR
— John Prescott (@johnprescott) June 21, 2017
Here are some other social media reactions:
Boris Johnson embarrassing himself 30 seconds into an interview on @BBCRadio4
— Iain Lee (@iainlee) June 21, 2017
Boris Johnson's brain and mouth in a coalition of chaos right now. #bbcpm @bbcpm @eddiemair
— Jeremy Mortimer (@Jeremymortimer) June 21, 2017
Awful outing for the Foreign sec - Johnson struggles in interview - BBC News https://t.co/uYqZCdRs85
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) June 21, 2017
Eddie Mair playing with Boris Johnson on Radio 4 a bit like our cat does with a mouse its caught in the garden.
— Kevin Schofield (@PolhomeEditor) June 21, 2017
And the newspaper headlines will not make for any easier reading for Mr Johnson:
‘Hang on a second’: Boris Johnson flounders on interview circuit The Guardian
‘Boris crashes and burns on Radio 4’ The Times
Boris Johnson completely forgets all his party’s policies in car-crash interview Metro
So why did it go so wrong?
Well, it all points to a woeful lack of preparation. He seemed ill-prepared for questions on the content of the Queen’s Speech, even though most political commentators report there was very little in it.
But he also appeared to be poorly prepared for the type of journalist he was about to face. Mr Mair famously ended an interview with Mr Johnson in 2013 by asking ‘you’re a nasty piece of work aren’t you?’ Yet despite that history, the Foreign Secretary appeared to expect an easy ride when he turned up at the BBC.
On our media training courses we always stress the importance of preparation and make it clear that part of that preparation should include understanding who will be interviewing them. Some journalists, for example, will have a reputation for being much more hard-hitting than others.
The other key point about this interview is that Mr Johnson clearly tried to dodge the question about the ‘point of the Prime Minister’. This is something else we tackle on our media training courses. We tell our delegates they cannot dodge difficult questions, or ones they don’t want to answer, in a media interview. Adopting this approach only makes spokespeople sound evasive and causes the journalist to repeat the question. Spokespeople need to answer, or at the very least, acknowledge the question before using media training techniques to try to steer the interview away from an area they are not comfortable talking about.
So was Lord Prescott right in his assessment? Let’s just say there are plenty of other contenders for that particular crown.
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