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BBC presenter issues jibe at Boris Johnson for his answer about model buses

The BBC's Simon McCoy. Photograph: BBC. - Credit: Archant

A BBC newsreader raised eyebrows when he issued a sarcastic jibe aimed at Tory leadership contestant Boris Johnson for his answer about making model buses.

In the interview Johnson was asked about what he does to relax.

While Theresa May answered the question previously in a fairly standard ‘Maybot’ way – talking about her love for television series NCIS, cooking and walking – Johnson gave a bizarre response which has gone viral.

Speaking to talkRADIO, he said: “I, well, I like to… paint. Or I make things. I like to… I make, I have a thing where I make models of, when I was mayor of London we built a beautiful – I make buses.

“I make models of buses. So what I do, no, I don’t make models of buses, what I do is I get old – I don’t know – wooden crates… Right? And then I paint them.

“And they, they have – suppose it’s a box that’s been used to contain two wine bottles, right? And it will have a dividing thing.

“And I turn it into a bus. And so I put passengers – you want to know this? …No, I paint the passengers enjoying themselves.

“On the wonderful bus… low carbon, of a kind that we brought to the streets of London, reducing Co2, reducing nitrous oxide, reducing pollution.”

Some have noted it has been a handy distraction for the politician who had been fielding questions around his police visit.

But the most praised response to the video interview came from BBC News journalist Simon McCoy.

He issued a dry remark aimed at the MP who just a few weeks ago was issued a court summons for his ‘£350 million’ claims about the EU, which ended up plastered on the side of the red bus during the referendum campaign.

“I wonder what he writes on the side of if?” quipped McCoy.

The response to the excruciating moment was praised by users on social media, and it was it was widely shared.

McCoy later tweeted, in response to the reaction, simply stating: “What the hell is going on? #life”.

Johnson’s court summons was quashed a few weeks later after a judge threw it out, with campaigners claiming it had given politicians the licence to lie.

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