The Scoop

Boris Johnson's sweary tirade at BBC London reporter

Adam Bienkov | Monday 30 April, 2012 14:24

Boris Johnson today told a BBC London reporter to “stuff [Tim] Donovan and his fucking bollocks” after he was asked a question about his links to News International.

Boris’s extraordinary on-camera outburst follows a report by BBC London’s political editor into the Mayor’s commercial and political links to the Murdochs.

It also follows a remarkable finger-jabbing interview between Boris’s deputy Kit Malthouse and Donovan on the Sunday Politics yesterday.

Boris had been repeatedly invited to appear on the show following similar interviews with other mayoral candidates, but refused citing a long-standing “private engagement.”

Tweets from supporters later revealed that he was in fact campaigning on the streets of Wimbledon as the show went on air.

The relationship between BBC London and the Mayor has long been a difficult one.

I understand that Boris’s campaign have refused to send out press releases to BBC London detailing where he will be during the campaign.

Even more extraordinarily their reporters have been asked to pre-submit questions by Boris’s campaign before they arrive at campaign events.

Predictably Boris’s supporters are now trying to smear Donovan as a biased “leftist.”

In reality Donovan was one of the biggest thorns in Ken Livingstone’s side during his mayoralty, and was one of the leading figures to investigate Lee Jasper.

Boris’s comments today, and Malthouse’s performance yesterday show an aggressive bully-boy side to his administration that has never before been seen publicly.

With the key factor in Boris’s re-election being his “likeability” over Ken, it is pretty risky for him to show it in public now.

UPDATE Mathew sent us a copy of Political Scrapbook’s version of the video.

---