Boris Johnson caught drinking whisky despite pledge to give up alcohol until Brexit is delivered

Prime Minister Boris Johnson tastes whisky at the Roseisle Distillery in Scotland. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire. - Credit: PA

Boris Johnson’s pledge to cut out alcohol until Brexit is delivered has been doubted after he was snapped sipping whisky during a distillery visit.

Boris Johnson meets staff and nurses during a visit to King’s Mill Hospital in Sutton-in-Ashfield. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire. – Credit: PA

The prime minister’s apparent “do or dry” pledge followed his failure to keep his “do or die” promise to deliver Brexit by October 31.

The comments came after Boris Johnson chatted about health matters with nurses at the King’s Mill Hospital in Nottinghamshire.

Johnson asked them to tell him more about Ashfield, noting: “Someone said there’s a lot of first-time mums who are smoking or something like that.

“Is that right?”

The PM was told a lot of people smoke in Ashfield before he switched his attention to vaping, saying: “I’m not certain about it.

“It might just encourage them to get into nicotine.”

He then asked “what about alcohol?” before adding: “I’ve had to give it up until we get Brexit done.”

Johnson did not clarify whether he meant the first phase of Brexit by the end of January 2020 or the end of the transition period in December next year – or what would happen if the UK remained in the EU.

It is also not clear when the pledge started, but just 24 hours earlier during a visit to a distillery in Scotland the prime minister was seen sampling the drinks on offer. He was captured on camera praising its whisky.