Asked if he was honest, Johnson said he does his ‘best to represent faithfully and accurately what I believe.’
Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered a humiliating interview on Good Morning Britain, when asked about his honesty as well as his lack of support for people struggling with the cost of living crisis.
Johnson was slammed for being ‘tone deaf’, ‘narcissistic’ and ‘out of touch’ given his responses.
During the interview, host Susanna Reid read out an email she had received from a 77-year-old pensioner Elsie, who is a widow and lives in a council house. Elsie receives a pension of £170 a week while her energy bills have risen from £17 a month to £85 a month – costing her an extra £816 a year.
Susanna said: ‘To cut down on spending, Elsie has resorted to eating one meal a day. She’s losing weight, she’s 77.
“She goes to the supermarket at the end of the day to buy yellow sticker discounted items. She gets up early in the morning to use her Freedom bus pass to stay on buses all day to avoid using energy at home.
“What else should Elise cut back on?”
The prime minister said he didn’t want her to cut back on anything, but went on to boast that he ‘introduced the freedom bus pass’.
Reid replied: “So Elsie should be grateful?”
Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jon Ashworth said: “It is utterly shameful that pensioners have no choice but to sit on the bus all day to avoid racking up heating bills at home, or are left shivering in blankets and only eating one meal a day.
“For Boris Johnson to respond by boasting about the London bus pass reveals just how out of touch this narcissistic Prime Minister is. The simple truth is Boris Johnson has just imposed the biggest real terms cut to the pension in 50 years and charities like Age UK are warning this will be a year of hell for Britain’s retirees.
“A vote for Labour on Thursday is a vote to send the Conservatives a message they can’t ignore about why we need a windfall tax to provide real help to families facing the Conservatives’ cost of living crisis.”
The prime minister also conceded that Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s £9bn would fail to help all people struggling with their bills as inflation and rising food and energy prices clobber households.
Asked if he was honest, Johnson said he does his ‘best to represent faithfully and accurately what I believe.’
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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