Watch Boris Johnson’s shambolic reply when quizzed on Tories’ ‘factcheck’ Twitter

Boris Johnson gave a shambolic reply when he was asked about the Conservative party being trusted after its press office rebranded its Twitter account to resemble an independent fact-checking service. - Credit: Archant

Boris Johnson has been branded ‘absolutely embarrassing’ after he was asked about his party’s attempt to rebrand its Twitter account as an independent fact-checking service.

At the launch of the Conservative Party’s election manifesto, the prime minister was asked by a Guardian reporter how the public can trust Johnson after the misleading debacle.

MORE: Tory party criticised after disguising Twitter as ‘Fact Check UK’ during ITV debate WATCH: ‘It’s dystopian’ – Presenter criticises Tory chair for ‘misleading’ the public over ‘fact check’ stuntAs he listened to the question Johnson made dismissive gestures implying it had no validity at all.

Over a halting and evasive reply, littered with high-flown allusions, he claimed he didn’t have oversight on the matter and attempted to pivot the whole question of “trust in politics” to Labour’s stance on Brexit.

He said: “We still – the one fact, the one that we wish to discover, the one hard crouton of fact that we search for in the great minetrone of Labour’s policy on Brexit is, what is the position of the leader of the Labour party on whether he wants to come out of the European Union.”

Johnson's answer to this question is just absolutely embarrassing. A complete and utter shambles. #ToryManifesto #ConservativeManifesto pic.twitter.com/wVyCbXf6Uw
— Gully Burrows (@gully_burrows) November 24, 2019

The ramblings that followed were branded “just absolutely embarrassing” by Mirror video editor Gully Burrows, who tweeted the clip.

Commentators have noted how well-worn Johnson’s lines are becoming.

“Just look at the way he recycles mouldy gags,” wrote the Times’ Quention Letts. “The ‘single crouton in the minestrone of Labour’s Brexit policy,’ the ‘just add water’ line about his own EU departure deal: these and other used routines were trotted out again.”

Peter Walker, the Guardian’s political correspondent, said: “A seemingly simple question from colleague Rowena Mason seemed to entirely disrupt Boris Johnson’s algorithm and leave him randomly spouting nonsense phrases from earlier appearances.”