Boris Johnson refuses to say how many children he has
Boris Johnson has refused to speak about his own children after describing the children of single mothers as ‘ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate’.
The prime minister was challenged on the comment he made in a 1995 article that resurfaced in the press this week.
In the article, published in the Conservative Spectator magazine he used to edit, Mr Johnson wrote that it is ‘outrageous that married couples should pay for the single mothers’ desire to procreate independently of men’.
Advertisement Advertisement
During an appearance on LBC Radio this morning, Mr Johnson was asked why he was allowed to have opinions on other people’s children while not speaking about his own.
He told host Nick Ferrari he would not ‘put them on the pitch’ ahead of the 12 December election.
The PM Said: ‘I love my children very much, but they are not standing at this election, and I am not therefore going to comment.
‘I am not going to put them on to the pitch in this election.’
Mr Johnson, 55, has four children with his wife Marina Wheeler who he has separated from.
But he has never answered questions on how many other children he has as a result of highly publicised affairs.
In 2004, news broke of Mr Johnson’s four-year affair with journalist Petronella Wyatt, during which time she had fallen pregnant and had an abortion.
Then in 2013, a court ruled that the public were entitled to know about claims that an affair with art consultant Helen Macintyre resulted in the birth of Mr Johnson’s daughter.
He and Ms Macintyre challenged stories that appeared in the press about the affair and the child’s birth.
But the Court of Appeal said: ‘The core information in this story, namely that the father had an adulterous affair with the mother, deceiving both his wife and the mother’s partner and that the claimant, born about nine months later, was likely to be the father’s child, was a public interest matter which the electorate was entitled to know when considering his fitness for high public office.’
Advertisement Advertisement
When asked today if he was going to have more children, Mr Johnson, who is living at Downing Street with his partner Carrie Symonds after separating from his wife last year, said: ‘I’m not going to get into discussions (on this).’
The prime minister was seen gesturing aggressively during his interview, with some speculating whether he forgot he was on screen.
Mr Johnson appeared to draw his finger across his throat as if to signal he wanted to cut the questions being asked of him.
However, the prime minister claimed he was actually mimicking presenter Nick Ferrari, who made the gesture himself because a producer was talking to him in his headphones too loudly.
Elsewhere in his LBC interview, Mr Johnson spoke about allegations he wanted to ‘sell off’ the NHS to the US in post-Brexit trade talks.
But the PM said he would ‘walk out’ of talks with President Donald Trump if the US demanded the NHS be ‘on the table’ in discussions.
He said: ‘The NHS is not for sale and under no circumstances will this Government or any Conservative government do anything to put the NHS up for negotiation in trade talks or privatising or anything like that.
‘I can tell you that were the United States or any other country to insist on that as a condition of talks, we would simply walk out.
Advertisement
‘It is perfectly obvious as leader of this country that if any government was to be so mad as to go down that route then they would never be elected.’
On Wednesday Jeremy Corbyn claimed produced a 451-page government document at a press conference, that he claimed confirms the NHS is on the table in trade talks with the US.
The Labour leader gave a speech on the NHS in Westminster, where he accused the Conservatives of ‘selling-out’ the NHS for a deal with Mr Trump.
He said the uncensored papers his party had obtained ‘leaves Boris Johnson’s denials in tatters’.
The prime minister also used his appearance on LBC to say Britain would leave the European Union by January 31 ‘at the absolute latest’ if his Conservative Party win a majority in the election.
He also repeated his message that he saw no reason why Britain would need to extend the transition period after Brexit beyond the end of 2020.
Asked if he would rather be prime minister or have Britain leave the EU, he replied: ‘I would rather get us out of the EU. I can tell you that.’
Got a story for Metro.co.uk?
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. For more stories like this, check our news page.